As our Editor-in-Chief Mr Joe G posted earlier, the Democrats are entering precarious political waters.
As we speak, all roads lead to a November thumping for the ruling party, thanks to the Republican’s scorched earth approach which has seen them reduced the once Messianic President Obama to mid-term levels of mere mortals such as President Clinton and Reagan. Someone in the Republican brain trust has surely calculated that the only way to beat (Super) Barack Obama is the old fashion, Lee Atwater way of politics – beat him and the ruling party into generalized caricatures.
But hey, that’s politics, right? Someone within the GOP ranks must have made the decision not to work with Obama or the Democrats on anything substantive (apart from the Stimulus bill) because it is of benefit to the GOP. How can anyone argue? Men and women lie: poll numbers don’t.
But there have to be consequences to not having a hand at building and supporting one of the most important legislative acts in American history – ObamaCare is now law and unless it becomes a totally unworkable disaster, Democrats will reap the political benefits of helping millions of people afford healthcare, something akin to how they secured ethnic minority support after the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 (even though that process was much more bi-partisan).
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This is a very dangerous game the Republicans are playing. In times of serious national turmoil, ideology goes out of the window for most voters and it is replaced with pragmatism, a point which is well illustrated at home, in the United Kingdom.
With financial clouds gathering, chronic unemployment, a welfare system spiralling out of control, the British people made the decision of not rewarding anyone party with soul control of the country and in turn stipulated that bi-partisanship becomes order of the day. No more politics as usual, from now on those in power have to work together, make concessions, make compromises in order to get things done.
Now we have a country that is being run by two parties that were at one time (and still are in regional areas) sworn enemies and they are doing so with relatively little fuss and more importantly making the difficult decisions with disregard to the usual political gamesmanship. Maybe this is the new-day, the new politics which Obama spoke of in the 2008 elections – it’s just happening in the old world instead.
As the result of this Co-op agreement, we have a Conservative Party that has political cover to make what some economists regards as the unavoidable cuts to public services that is necessary to get the UK’s books in order and the Liberal Democrats can show the country that they can run the country, they can act as the liberal conscious to the ‘brutal’ Conservatives and more importantly, they are looking to overtake the Labour Party as the alternative party in the country. All of these political calculations are wide ranging and long term, as opposed to short term decisions the Republicans are making.
More disturbingly is how the lack of long term thinking is supplemented by an ugly message delivered by divisive figures such as Rush Limbaugh:
“Obama’s entire economic program is reparations”
Or Tom Tancredo:
“The greatest threat to the country that our founding fathers put together is the man that’s sitting in the White House today.”
The fact that these attacks have gone unrepudiated by their GOP counterparts shows the moral bankruptcy that this great political institution is facing. They have given up competing with the Democrats on policy ideas and have decided to play to their lesser angels by invoking the America’s darkest hours to their political benefit.
Instead of inviting different, moderate voices to the GOP tent, the Republicans are purifying and narrowing their knowledge base.
Instead of seizing this moment, a period in which they should have taking their exile gracefully and started to construct a new Republican message for an even brighter future, they chosen to regress and depend on the tried and tested means to political victory.
But time is running out for the Republican Party, the above statements will not make inroads amongst the ever increasingly important ethnic minority constituency, especially Hispanic voters. And although Obama is losing the independents, their votes won’t be swayed by ideological arguments – like in the UK, American could be entering the age of pragmatism, a characteristic that has been in short supply from the Republicans since Obama has taken office.
The Republicans should have been spending this part two years rebuilding their party, building for a new conservative revolution. Instead we have a party that looks like the old party, looking to November for their salvation, forgetting about the political beast they have to face in 2012 – a beast that re-wrote political history and repainted America’s political map.
November could be the GOP’s light at the end of the tunnel, but it also very well be the white light before their demise.
I want to give the final word to Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire:
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), who lost his primary last month, said too many Republican leaders are acquiescing to a poisonous “demagoguery” that threatens the party’s long-term credibility, the AP reports.
In particular, he cited a claim made famous by Sarah Palin that the Democratic health care bill would create “death panels” to decide whether elderly or sick people should get care.
Said Inglis: “There were no death panels in the bill… and to encourage that kind of fear is just the lowest form of political leadership. It’s not leadership. It’s demagoguery… I think we have a lot of leaders that are following those (television and talk radio) personalities and not leading. What it takes to lead is to say, ‘You know, that’s just not right.'”
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