It would be difficult to envision, without the aid of psilocybin, a more vivid sign of the GOP’s dawning recognition of the peril it is now facing. With Democrats having gained a potent hold on the coalition of the ascendant, Republicans find themselves in a situation like the one their rivals met in the wake of the 1988 election: markedly out of step with the country, shackled to a retrograde base, in the grip of an array of fads and factions, wedded to an archaic issues agenda. …John Heilemann, NYMag
It’s not just the Republicans going nuts and trying to figure out wha’ happened. The rest of us know what happened (we were living in reality, they were not), but we’d be glad to down a mushroom or two if that would help us understand where the Republican defeat leaves the left. With or without hallucigens, some of us have already figured it out, among them Heileman.
On the right, it has always been an article of faith that, freed from the constraints imposed by the need to seek reelection, Obama would suddenly and wantonly lurch to the left, governing as the socialist/communist/fascist/anarcho-syndicalist/Black Panther he most surely is deep down in his heart of hearts. But this assessment is more than merely baseless and downright dopey. …This is a president unusually focused in the present on what his legacy will be in the future. With Obama’s reelection, one foundational element of that legacy has been secured: the Affordable Care Act, which, had he been defeated, would not only likely have been repealed but retrospectively reduced to one of the causes of his loss. Now, with a second term ahead of him, among Obama’s paramount goals, say his advisers, is to add another glittering trophy to his mantle: at least one more domestic-policy reform tantamount in importance to near-universal health care….
…The shiniest such prize would be the achievement of a grand bargain on entitlements and tax reform: a bipartisan agreement that would put the nation’s fiscal house in order for years, and maybe decades, to come. …Heilemann
Yes. That would be one for the history books and could be astep towards the re-humanizing of the Republican party. On the other hand, once you’re dead, you’re dead — and the Republicans appear to have kicked the bucket. Hard to tell. From Romney to Rove or from Graham to McConnell, I wouldn’t know where to look for a pulse.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
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