Our political Quote of the Day comes from the Washington Post’s prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson, writing about the Republican civility breakdown that he and several pundits say was visible on several levels during President
Barack Obama’s speech to Congress on health care reform:
House Republicans were particularly ostentatious in showing their disrespect not just for Obama but for the office he holds. The outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina — who shouted “You lie!” when Obama said his plan would not cover illegal immigrants — was only the most egregious display of contempt. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House minority whip, fiddled with his BlackBerry while the commander in chief was speaking. Other Republicans made a show of waving copies of their own alleged reform plan, which isn’t really a plan at all.
And Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas waved hand-lettered signs at the president, as if he thought he were attending one of those made-for-television town-hall meetings rather than a solemn gathering of the nation’s highest elected officials.
Throughout the speech, there was grumbling, mugging and eye-rolling on the Republican side that was not only undignified but frankly un-American. When I was a correspondent in London, I covered far more raucous sessions of the British House of Commons — that’s how Parliament treats the prime minister, who is the head of government. In the United States, that simply is not how Congress treats the president, who is the head of state.
Congress didn’t heckle Lyndon Johnson like that during the Vietnam War or Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Congress didn’t even show that kind of bitterness and aggression toward George W. Bush, who did lie — specifically, about the intelligence that his administration relied on to justify an unnecessary war that has cost 4,300 American lives and enough money to fund Obama’s health-care proposals for a decade.
Robinson says Wilson’s apology sounded “insincere..a variant of the “mistakes were made” dodge” and that Republicans are all too sincere about what they’re saying.
He then offers this explanation about a process that is unfolding that may not alarm some Republicans who remain loyal to and love their party, but alarms and scares off some others who were once Republicans and/or who split their tickets voting for a less strident and more policy focused incarnation of the GOP:
Last November’s election so wounded the GOP that the nation is now suffering collateral damage. The Republicans who were punished at the polls for the failures of the Bush years were those in the most evenly contested districts, which meant they tended to be relatively moderate. Those who represent solidly Republican districts were safe, and their greatest fear isn’t being defeated by a Democrat next fall but being challenged by a primary opponent who’s even more of a right-wing yahoo.
There are quite a few Democratic pragmatists in Congress — which is why health-care reform is being worked over so thoroughly by the Blue Dogs. In the Republican ranks, especially in the House, pragmatists are few and ideologues are legion. Many of them probably believe the nonsense they spout about creeping socialism and an urgent threat to America As We Know It. But it’s still nonsense. The ideologues’ sincerity just makes this toxic, rejectionist rhetoric more dangerous.
But he see’s Obama as having delivered a pointed bottom line message to those Republicans who are anchored in ideology and what he calls rejectionist rhetoric:
And he drew one bright line in the sand: Throw spitballs all you want, but this will be done.
Putting aside any political party labels, ideological labels or making any judgment about who is to blame more or less, Robinson’s analysis leads to one conclusion — and one question.
CONCLUSION: The era of polarization is about to get a lot uglier.
QUESTION: Which side will discredit itself among the bulk of voters the most? (To the survive goes the political spoils..)
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.