Our first must-read special Quote of the Day comes from Andrew Sullivan on the efforts by conservative Republicans to win by government shutdown or threat of throwing the United States into another recession via debt limit default what they have not won at the ballot box, by working to create broad coalitions in Congress, or in the courts:
But the issue now is the economic terrorism that the GOP is using as an unprecedented lever to re-litigate the last election. Take the gun away from our heads, and lay it on the ground. Then we can negotiate – and if a bigger, better Grand Bargain comes from that negotiation, the Dish will cheer it on.
But first: put down your gun and leave it on the ground. And walk slowly away so we can see you have nothing left to harm the country or the world with.
In the end, when all the controversy has cleared away, the question will be whether the final outcome put American democracy on a new path that negated the concept of majority — a majority in national elections, a majority in a ruling on the Supreme Court — rules.
Sullivan also points us to The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf, who notes something yours truly has written about often: the almost tribal nature of the conservative media and how it weakens the GOP. I will say it again: listen to what Rush Limbaugh advocates despite what the pundits say may or should happen with the GOP and that will be what occurs. Limbaugh has long pooh-poohed the debt limit taboo. It’s almost like clock work. Some excerpts:
The strategy that House Republicans have imprudently embraced in recent weeks has many causes. Dysfunction at conservative media outlets is one of them.
“Republicans can pretty much say whatever they want, no matter what the bizarre logic and no matter what connection it has to what they were saying five minutes ago, and Fox News will totally accept it and blast it for hours or days,” Jonathan Bernstein observes. “The result? Republicans have become incredibly lazy. After all, why bother constructing a coherent argument if you don’t need one.”
It’s true. In order to get good press from the conservative media, Republican politicians need not craft a brilliant political strategy or impress with policy substance or excel at persuading the public that conservative ideas are the way forward. They need only find themselves in conflict with President Obama and Democrats.
And:
The strategy that House Republicans have imprudently embraced in recent weeks has many causes. Dysfunction at conservative media outlets is one of them.
“Republicans can pretty much say whatever they want, no matter what the bizarre logic and no matter what connection it has to what they were saying five minutes ago, and Fox News will totally accept it and blast it for hours or days,” Jonathan Bernstein observes. “The result? Republicans have become incredibly lazy. After all, why bother constructing a coherent argument if you don’t need one.”
It’s true. In order to get good press from the conservative media, Republican politicians need not craft a brilliant political strategy or impress with policy substance or excel at persuading the public that conservative ideas are the way forward. They need only find themselves in conflict with President Obama and Democrats.
And this crucial point:
Notice that conservative media became ascendant after the apex of conservative successes during the Reagan Revolution. And ever since, as conservative media has grown more popular and lucrative, conservatism itself has suffered. Coincidence? Think it over, conservatives. You have nothing to lose but your hucksters.
May I say…”Ditto”?
UPDATE:
Josh Marshall:
I was just listening to Wolf Blitzer explain that Republicans realize they’re getting killed in the world of public opinion but keeping the government closed and threatening a debt default. But they’re worried, he explains, that if they open the government and take the debt default off the table they’ll lose a lot of their leverage to force things like repealing Obamacare, cutting Social Security, Medicare and other similar stuff.
That’s undoubtedly true. But it brings the real situation into focus. Without threatening historic damage to the country if they don’t get their way, their leverage would shift back to their actual position, that of holding one House of Congress and that’s it. The Democrats have the presidency and the Senate. The GOP has the House. That gives them real leverage but not that much leverage. They have one foothold in Washington.
….The House isn’t a national vote and gerrymandering goes back to the history of the country. But again, the GOP holds half of one branch of government. That gives them a seat at the table. But not a commanding one.
That’s the essence of it. Elections matter. This is what the 2012 election got them. But that’s not enough. Only threatening to destroy the economy and US ‘full faith and credit’ gives them ‘leverage’.
The most troubling part of it is this:
There is no way 10 years ago many Republicans would go along with politicians who suggested doing what the Tea Party dominated House has done and is convincing the Repugblican Party as a brand to endorse — regardless of how many Republicans say they disagree with it. The role of conservative media and the new media in going along and in effect jettisoning the past assumptions and understood ground rules of the way our democracy has functions doesn’t bode well for politics in the 21st century.
Truly, now, the ends justify any means.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.