The Democratic party and the President have been so thoroughly outmaneuvered by a pack of screaming brats it's breathtaking. Some said 'oh look the adults are back in town, we are playing 11-D chess to their 2-D checkers', well all I can say is next time go play politics in the 11th dimension since your strategy doesn't work in the three we call reality.
The sad thing with all the huffing and puffing about tax cut renewal it delayed actually getting it done long enough so that the right could use unemployment as a blackmail tool. It's called a 'guilt trip'; "think of all the people [the unemployed] that will suffer if you do not do exactly as we say."
The same thing happened during the health care debate 'our side' couldn't get its act together and the right stole the dialogue. We ended up with Bob Dole's health care plan and a mandate for the insurance companies because our leaders failed to get the message out early and often. Single payer wasn't even discussed; because oh deary me the republicans would get angry, I wonder how that worked out.
Its a sad day because by not standing up and by being inefficient they lost the game. The Democratic Party that has [until January] a majority in both houses and the bully pulpit of the White House have adopted the economic policies of the Bush Administration.
The meme being floated now is 'but but elections have consequences', funny how we said that two years ago. We lost the house because we didn't know how to play the political arena with skill, we lost the rhetorical fight by being woolly and quiet. You cannot win the discourse in America by not firstly making your message a clear as day and then secondly not fighting for your policies.
Right from the start even with 60 senators and a large majority in the House we allowed the Republicans to set the agenda, we allowed them to 'bloviate' and obstruct to their hearts content. Worst of all we allowed them to operate as if they had won in 2008. I cannot remember a more pathetic strategy in politics anywhere in my lifetime. You can blame the filibuster all you like; but the fact of the matter is the Democratic party first lost the dialogue, and then handily the elections last month.
The reason we lost is because we cut our own damn throats, and we did that by allowing the republicans to steal the megaphone on day one.
Yesterday is a sign of things to come:
1] We now have a Republican economic model in place.
2] We allowed ourselves to be blackmailed by the very effect of these same policies; unemployment.
We are still paying for two wars, cutting taxes, and failing to stimulate the economy, we don't stand a prayer in 2012 and deservedly so.
By playing the game so badly right from day one the Republican majority in the House can now set the agenda in the House and enough 'Democrats' in the senate will go right along with them. The President will be isolated; and I'm afraid I have little sympathy with him at this point since he has dug his own political grave in the main.
By having HCR come in slowly we gave the opportunity to the Republicans to eat away at the reforms within. By extending the Bush tax cuts [now Obama's] for two years we will allow them to become permanent.
The next two years will see attacks on education, HCR, medicaid, SCHIP, medicare and social security [if they haven't started already]. If you don't believe me just ask:
1] Where else do you think they are going to find the money to pay the rich?
2] Where else are they going to find the funds for our out of control MIC?
We will be having the same debate on unemployment insurance in thirteen months because the economy will not recover by then. This capitulation does not change the long term game plan the Republicans have for 2012.
The deficit will mount from now to then; and the stagnant economy will be laid at the feet of the Democrats and the President by the right, and with some justification I might add.
Someone mentioned Presidential choices for SCOTUS as more important than almost anything else. All I can say is that the 'Citizens United v Federal Election Commission' decision makes that all but irrelevant.
Conclusion
The lesson of the last two years:
So next time the game laid out is checkers; please play checkers and not chess. You'll only end up getting annoyed and trounced if you don't.
I hope someone is taking notes.
.
Apparently I'm not alone:
From the New York Times Editorial
But the country can’t afford to continue tax cuts for the rich indefinitely. And by kicking the issue down the road to 2012 — a presidential election year — it all but guarantees more craven politicking then.
I can hear the screams already, Obama's tax cuts have increased the deficit, cut taxes now!
On a decidedly sour note, Mr. Obama also said he had agreed to cut estate taxes even more than in the last year of the Bush administration. That is not compromise. It is capitulation.
Someone please explain this to me, I'm at a loss how this even got into the discussions.
The president needs to ask himself why he couldn’t make that case now — and how he plans to change his approach to governing so he doesn’t get trapped this way again.
I would argue that this is not the first time nor is it being anyway near the last.
Mr. Obama also said that "we cannot play politics at a time when the American people are looking for us to solve problems." Unfortunately, the Republicans felt no such compunction. He should have fought harder.
It's checkers goddammit! Put the Bishop back in the box.
sigh.