NYT: The Benefits of Intransigence
This scares the shit out of me ....
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/sunday-review/the-benefits-of-intransigence.html
In fact, this minority faction — the “suicide caucus,” as the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer has called it — may be less shortsighted and self-defeating than it appears. At a time when so many officials in both parties still invoke the virtues of compromise and perpetuate the ideal of common ground on which “conservative pragmatists” can meet “moderate Democrats,” these more combative Republicans may be in the vanguard of a new post-consensus politics.
...
But Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who helped set the stage for the conflict, has offered a different interpretation. Those prophesying ruin “need to go back and read their history books a little more closely” regarding 1995, he said on Laura Ingraham’s radio show in July. “In the next election, 1996, Republicans held on to the majority in the House, the first time Republicans had done that since 1930, in 66 years,” Mr. Cruz pointed out. “We lost a total of nine seats in the House. In the Senate, we gained two seats.”
...
The most striking example of Republican opposition is the revival of the doctrine of states’ rights, historically associated with slavery and Jim Crow. There are unmistakable overtones of this past in the anti-Obamacare movement in some of the 26 states, especially in the Deep South, that have rejected the Medicaid expansion.
...
This is the perspective of a self-conscious minority that seeks not to build consensus but to rally the likeminded. We see it as well in the anti-tax pledges promoted by conservative groups and in the fielding of right-wing challengers to ideologically suspect Republicans. “ ‘It does not take a majority to prevail,’ ” Mr. Paul said at the conference’s climactic event, quoting Samuel Adams, “ ‘but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men.’ ”
Mr. Tanenhaus writes of "the alienated and disenchanted" being drawn in to the Republican fold by this tactic. Too bad the Democrats don't offer something to the 50% of eligible voters who don't bother. You know, something like ...
... Medicare for All, including dental, optical and hearing aids
... Strengthening and expanding Social Security
... Living wage
... Legalized pot
... Big cuts to defense/homeland/spy agency spending
... Increasing taxes on the wealthy
Not only would traditional Democratic voters show up, but so would tens of millions of the currently disaffected. We have to stand for something besides "not the Republican".
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