Out of everything said yesterday this one passage stood out to me:
So all I’m saying is we’ve got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality.
I’m not suggesting that we’re going to agree on everything, whether it’s on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.
I mean, the fact of the matter is is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, “This guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”
So true. And the biggest problem is that Republicans have turned rhetoric into GOP reality. Seriously, how would they justify compromising and working with a man their base considers Hitler? That’s a pretty big about-face, and one that can only be achieved if Republicans tell their base that they were, well… wrong. How do you take someone you painted as a threat to everything you believe and then say “just kidding.”
Whoever came up with the “party of no” platform did the GOP no favors. They are boxed in – to the point where voting with the President will be viewed as making a deal with the devil. Of course, they have no one to blame but themselves. They limited their own options. Keep voting “no” and keep the base with you in November, compromise and lose the base in the hope of wooing Independents. Truth is, Republicans, like Democrats, need both groups. Actually, the GOP has an added burden in the form of tea partiers, who wallow in rhetoric and hyperbole. Attempting to take away the Tea Party’s favorite Hitler action figure without causing a major temper tantrum strikes me as political suicide. But so does the path they’ve chosen – mainly because Obama, during his SOTU and again yesterday, dragged the Republicans out of the bleachers and onto the field of governing.
I admit I was upset when Dems lost that 60th vote, but lately I’m wondering if that wasn’t good thing. 60 votes allowed the “party of no” to obstruct without consequences. After all, with 60 votes Dems shouldn’t need their votes. I’m also beginning to think that if Democrats had no plan B for a Massachusetts loss, the Republicans didn’t have one for the win.
Frankly, I don’t see the GOP changing their “no” strategy, mainly because there’s no way to change it to their political advantage. And while moderate Republicans may want to reach across the aisle, the fear of being primaried by a Tea Party candidate or having their base sit at home on election day, should be enough to make them think twice. Of course, all or nothing stances tend to result in all or nothing.
What I do see changing is the lack of consequences to obstruction. Suit up, guys, you’re now off the bench and in the game.