Tea Party Logic: Winning Is Losing And Losing Is Winning

Every time I read, or listen to, Republicans discuss the Debt Limit I immediately think of Alice In Wonderland.

“I think I should understand that better, if I had it written down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say it.”

Here’s an example of the Tea Party’s “Losing is Winning” logic:  Christine O’Donnell.

Only in Tea Party land is losing a guaranteed Republican Senate seat a win.  And they do see this a win – a big one.

“It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”

Now, let’s take a look at their “Winning is Losing” logic:

Take it away Ari Melber:

This fight started with a partisan threat to sabotoge the economy in order to extract policy concessions, but then, when Democrats offered most of the concessions, it ricocheted and morphed into something else: a high-stakes lightning round of intramural GOP posturing. Right now, we are living through a Republican primary for economic policy. The results may hurt the nation—an externality that Republicans have widely acknowledged, lending bite to their bark—and no one seems to know what you do with an army that wants to keep fighting after there’s no land left to conquer.

Take a look at the last part…

“and no one seems to know what you do with an army that wants to keep fighting after there’s no land left to conquer.”

This is the root of the problem.  The Tea Party is only capable of burning down the house.  Escalation is the only tool in their tool box.

Escalation: the phenomenon of something getting more intense step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, a war between states possessing weapons of mass destruction.   In psychology, escalation is a change in behavior, usually from stable or acceptable towards unstable or unacceptable.

Perfect description, wouldn’t you agree?  And the reason they get away with this behavior?

CNN:  “They’re all talking, but no one is compromising, at least publicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear unwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling.”

Josh Marshall counters:

It is not partisan or spin to say that the Democrats have repeatedly offered compromises. The real driver of the debate is that the fact that Republican majority in the House can’t agree to win.

Exactly.

“There’s a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is — The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.”