Anticipating 2010: Line of the Day
From Jim Vandehei’s and Jonathan Martin’s article today on what might fuel or fetter a GOP comeback:
In politics, the resurrection of the out party almost always comes from the failure or excesses of the in party.
A runner-up “line of the day” from the same article:
“The voters are likely to use Republicans as a check” in 2010, said former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.). “Even if they don’t fully support us, they can give Republicans a protest vote.”
Though many of our contributors and readers won’t like to hear this: Davis’ comment characterizes roughly where I stand as I consider 2010. I love Obama on foreign policy and generally believe he’s the right man for the job right now. But, as I’ve argued before, every great president needs his dose of check-and-balance.
Thus — while I continue to be disgusted by much of what’s flung out of the Republican camp these days; while I recognize that much of what GOP leaders say on fiscal responsibility is utter hypocrisy; and while I by no means want the R’s completely in charge/running the show — I still appreciate the utility and potential value of their dissenting votes, especially on what might be budget-breaking proposals.
I’ll gladly reconsider this position, if the Blue Dogs prove to me they can hold the spending line, without being bullied into submission by Democratic leadership; ref. the conclusion of this post.
Until then, I’m inclined to hold my nose and root for the Republicans in 2010.
Go ahead, call me a fool. You know you want to.
6 Responses to “Anticipating 2010: Line of the Day”
You're a fool.
I understand you want to see the government become more responsible with our tax dollars but the Republicans haven't done it, they aren't proposing it and they won't follow through. At least not the current crop of Republicans.
Let's run down the last few months. They voted for the bank giveaways before they were against it. In a Hooverite maneuver, they stood strong against the stimulus (if they had gotten their way, our budget situation could be magnitudes worse). They are against health care reform which will save trillions in the long run. They are against regulating emissions which will cost us dearly in lives and money if we don't do something. They are *for* expanding the military budget and never ending the war in Iraq.
So much will depend on how much Obama's administration and the Congressional Dems overreach leftward.
Right now the smart money is against a GOP revival given their dysfunctionality and recent-past record of being like Dems in Washington. But the farther-left goals sought by many who have been “stranded in the wilderness” for eight years if not for much longer (during the Dems' fake-centrist “Third Way” flirting with reform after 1994, lefty Dems and Green types were explicitly told they had no place in Democratic leadership by people like Al From), and a Dem Washington now dwarfing any Bush-era-GOP misconduct with finances, and greatly growing federal intervention (and intrusion and excess control of the economy) and threatening more of the same makes it far from premature to see a revival eventually of the GOP as a better choice and at least a reasonable opposition to excess and alienation coming from Dem Washington.
You're no fool at all, Pete. Any farther-left huge-government types who misread history from the 1930s (or repeat the mistakes merely of 1993-4) or misread public opinion are more unrealistic and conceited than any Karl Rove-and-Company premature conceit about a permanent _Republican_ majority. Farther left stuff is far more alienating than a GOP that simply apes the Democrats (including in many worse ways).
So much depends on how far left and how ambitious (and conceited) the Dems in Washington choose to be.
Lefties who are Obamaniacs, take note. The smart money said Obama would wither away as of Super Tuesday (at the latest). So before you write off the GOP forever, don't neglect what you observed last year not only before, but _after_ Super Tuesday as well.
Enough muttering from me…
Pete Abel, I appreciate your intellectual goal of checks and balances, but when will you, Dennis Sanders, Tony Campbell and other “Nelson Rockefellers” of the blogosphere recognize that you represent “rounding error” as a political force………not because of your political bent, but because you guys have a Pollyanna's understanding of American politics. For the last few months your tiny group of highbrows have basically called for the drafting of a Moderate's Manifesto for the New Republican Party.
Unfortunately, regular folks have little time for your theorizing out the best change.
If you really want to get to a slightly more R balance for checks and balances sake, then your most pragmatic route is to stop your highbrow disdain for Rush Limbaugh and the other R-leaning mudslingers and recognize that it is they that will deliver the vote swing you seek.
Unlike you, Dennis and Tony, they recognize what can move swing voters fastest……..dissatisfaction with the “in” party. And their mechanics are simple……..sling 500 gobs of mud and a few are bound to hit the bullseye.
You don't have to like it, but ignore its reality at your peril.
Genteel political operatives are as scarce as buffalo nickels and represent the same amount of buying power.
Unfortunately, if you think the Dems are overreaching and/or are being too reckless with racking up debt, then there are worse ideas than voting for Republicans. Hopefully the boys and girls in red will eventually start listening to their more rational bretheren… like the ones that Obama keeps picking off for appointments, heheh.
Better would be building an organized mainstream infrastructure out of the totally disorganized groundswell of people who are fleeing the two parties by the hundreds of thousands. No organizations have decided to take that on… we NEED a group of organized moderate/centrist/mainstream organizations that can fight for our beliefs, there is no way around it. We cannot reform the two parties from outside of them and too many of us are unwilling, or unable, to stomach trying to reform them from within (I tried both parties in the last four years… the closer I got to 'the inside' the more I wanted to leave… never going back). Until then, all we have is lesser evils, with the occasional bright spot.
Neither party has shown any real willingness to sacrifice anything for the sake of fiscal responsibility. Its up to us to do that.
I am in a Masters program in Nonprofit Management and am studying this very subject.
Wasn't going to talk about this until I was closer to ready to pull the trigger, but I don't know about you people… I'm so done waiting for others to pick up the slack on this. I directed a medium sized political nonprofit during the '08 cycle (mostly focused on voter reg), and before that started and ran the local Obama grassroots group in the Omaha area (first electoral vote out of Nebraska for a Dem since '68!). With a few dozen hard core people we can get something started to try and harness the 'vital center' of that groundswell and focus that energy into building a mainstream political infrastructure, just like the conservatives began doing in the 60's, which led to the republican revolution, and the progressives did more recently, which led to the current state of affairs.
Hopefully I'll be able to get a few dozen people to put their time and money where their mouths are. Ultimately, none of us have any place to bitch and moan unless we do something about these problems. Frankly, blogging doesn't count… There are no more excuses anymore. The polls show we have the numbers… we just need to get off our collective asses and get organized and open our wallets and schedules to the cause.