GOP: Crazy Like Foxes by Digby

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/02




think one of the major misunderstandings (willful, in many cases) of this budget mess is that it’s about Republicans just running around willy-nilly screaming “nonononono” like toddlers having a temper tantrum. I know it looks that way, but that’s not what’s happening. This is a strategy. And it’s one they’ve even written down.

Jonathan Chait wrote about this in a widely read piece Monday in which he explains what they’ve been up to:

In January, demoralized House Republicans retreated to Williamsburg, Virginia, to plot out their legislative strategy for President Obama’s second term. Conservatives were angry that their leaders had been unable to stop the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on high incomes, and sought assurances from their leaders that no further compromises would be forthcoming. The agreement that followed, which Republicans called “The Williamsburg Accord,” received obsessive coverage in the conservative media but scant attention in the mainstream press. (The phrase “Williamsburg Accord” has appeared once in the Washington Post and not at all in the New York Times.) But the decision House Republicans made in January has set the party on the course it has followed since.

If you want to grasp why Republicans are careening toward a potential federal government shutdown, and possibly toward provoking a sovereign debt crisis after that, you need to understand that this is the inevitable product of a conscious party strategy. Just as Republicans responded to their 2008 defeat by moving farther right, they responded to the 2012 defeat by moving right yet again. Since they had begun from a position of total opposition to the entire Obama agenda, the newer rightward lurch took the form of trying to wrest concessions from Obama by provoking a series of crises.

[KoKo]

1. So...if our Dem Staffers knew that we already have the Ryan Budget

and had to be aware of the Williamsburg Conference agreement and the Madison Project Letter urging the Repugs to go further right and gain more concessions then why didn't they head this off sooner?

It's one thing to know the Tea Party are Sociopaths...but it's another to realize that our Dems had to know this was all going on and weren't able to come up with their own strategy that wouldn't allow things to get to this point where the country is disrupted, the bought and paid for MSM is showing the Tea Party as the good guys and spinning that the Dems won't compromise 24/7.

Is the Democratic strategy to hold the line and say no? Can we trust Harry Reid not to do deal for more concessions to the Repugs after we've gone through all this and people become angry and weary and blame both parties? What if the backlash against Repugs after the '96 Shutdown by Gingrich doesn't materialize this time? This pack of Repugs and their support is far more viscious, calculating and backed by even more influence than during the Gingrich era.

Somehow reading this about the Williamsburg Conference and Madison Project makes me feel like we on the Dem Left have been manipulated. Raving about Crazy Repugs and how they hate this President...when in fact our Dems have known all along what they were up against...but, have tended to keep their Activist Left out of the tent and refused to head this stuff off at the pass. That they accepted the Ryan Budget and now want to go further Right with more austerity if the Repugs push hard enough is very disheartening to this lifelong Dem. SS and Medicare are going to be in danger if this isn't stopped. The Private/Public Privatization Partnerships, TPP, Keystone XL will be allowed to go through and more offshoring of jobs and austerity to poverty will be the future for our country.

Anyway...the Digby piece is worth reading in full over at Common Dreams. Maybe others won't find it as revealing and depressing as I did.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[brush]

3. I'd say take this with several grains of salt

They may have planned the shutdown but it's still crazy and they are being blamed for it by the public.

If their strategy is to look like spoiled brats they've succeeded but they still failed miserably in stopping the ACA, which is going to hurt them in the long run much more than any gains they think they've gotten by sneaking in spending limits .

[Myrina]

4. +2

n/t

[Enthusiast]

5. +3

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. Why are you blaming the victim? It's an asanine position to take

What exactly were Dem staffers supposed to do? Start kidnapping GOP members of congress? Get real.

[MisterP]

7. it all makes sense when you see that the broader trajectory is to move everything rightwards

remember that the Dem leaders' plan is always "defend the party and attack our own collaborators," not "get X done": it's all about leverage, not goals