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From Now to November
According to pundits, Americans will be marking time for eight months, waiting to vote next fall in “a referendum on the most significant social legislation enacted in half a century.”
But like most conventional wisdom, that’s too simplistic a view of the political landscape in a confused, angry and volatile time.
As the President prepares to sign an interim bill and the Senate girds for its bound-to-be-ugly vote, the health-care battleground with all its smoking wreckage has only days left as the center of partisan conflict.
After that, other issues will predominate, and the sad spectacle of a disintegrating two-party system will move on to butchering them–Democrats reaching and probably overreaching for legislative solutions, Republicans locked into a solid opposition that is betting on gridlock as a winning strategy.
Looking at the challenge “to save this country from stagnation and fiscal ruin,” David Brooks, while not exonerating the GOP, despairs of Democrats: “With the word security engraved on its heart, the Democratic Party is just not structured to cut spending that would enhance health and safety. The party nurtures; it does not say, ‘No more.’”
Yet voters, persuaded that both parties are more motivated by politics than policy disagreements, may not be susceptible to arguments about ideology.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sees the President’s victory this weekend in visceral terms: “Part of the test here at the end wasn’t this policy or that policy. It was ‘Did he have the capacity to deliver?’ That question mark around him and the presidency has been answered.”
7 Responses to “From Now to November”
Between now and November, “Amnesty” will be the new catch phrase. Dems will use immigration reform to bring hispanics to the polls in November. Reps are already upset, so it isn't like they weren't going to show up anyway.
No Rahm, 3/4 of the way to a touchdown isn't a score.
Immediate Public Option = Landslide victory for dems in the Fall. Don't take your eyes off the prize. Remember what “lame duck” means to your hero?
A reminder this Summer/Fall about the party of “No” who exist to do nothing else but whore for industry and how their election will bring an end to the newly loved, lauded and cherished Public Option should be a very cheap advertising campaign…
Landslide or lame duck. Your choice..
1. Amnesty, amnesty, amnesty. Celebrate the year and the Census by adding to the (legal) Dem voters.
2. Financial “reform” here and there, beginning with Dodd's bill
3. “Climate change” environmentalist legislation. Here it comes. Cap-and-trade scam, what else?
4. Card check!
You forgot student loan reform… Though that goes into effect with this bill. The joys of reconciliation mean that nobody has to listen to Ben Nelson defending his home state.
They'll never get a public option through the Senate. They'll need 60 Senators or 60 years to do it.
“With the word security engraved on its heart, the Democratic Party is just not structured to cut spending that would enhance health and safety. . ..’”
And neither is the Republican Party when it comes to the “right people's” health and safety. Archer Daniel Midlands need not worry about it's health or safety as long as Senators like Ben Nelson from the Corn Husker state can control things.
Sorry, Sil — the public option isn't dead yet; you can hear the callers on lefty talk shows clamor for it, still. But it doesn't look good, as members of Congress asked about it say. Sorry, but it's more hiss, less purr.