This week’s DailyKos/PPP poll had an interesting pair of questions, asking who respondents would blame if the government shuts down next month, and if that would be a good thing or a bad thing for the country. 41% said they would blame Congressional Republicans; 35% said Obama. About a quarter of the population said a shutdown would be a good thing. But an intriguing question arises: how do you assign blame for something you think is good?
Showing the results of both questions at once, we see that those who are not sure about the shutdown aren’t too sure about blame either. Those who think a shutdown would be bad mostly would blame Congressional Republicans. And, those who think a shutdown would be good? They mostly would ‘blame’ Obama. But, are these people who are giving credit to Obama for producing an outcome they want, or are they just a bunch poo-flinging monkeys who are itching for the chance for Republicans to go on Fox News and blast Obama for doing such a terrible thing as shutting down the government?
Sometimes the question just answers itself.
Let’s look at the divisions by party and ideology. Once again I have left out Liberal Republicans because there just aren’t enough of ‘em to bother with.
Democrats, Liberals, and Moderates of all stripes are fairly united – about three quarters in each group think shutting down the government is a bad thing. Conservative Republicans and Conservative Independents (the bulk of Tea Partiers come from these two groups) are split. (Note once again that the group 'Independents' is actually two groups smooshed together.) In other words, it’s the far right versus everybody else on this question. About half of the far right is rooting for failure (do they hate America?), but to be fair, wanting the government to shut down is entirely consistent with trying to get it small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Lest you think this is a terrific wedge to split apart the GOP, those Moderate Republicans who think shutting down the government is a bad thing would still pretty much all blame Obama if it happened. The partisan lines are drawn.
But back to those who think a shutdown is good. Let’s separate out the left from the right. Below, I combined all those who are Republicans or Conservatives on one side, and on the other, all those who are Democrats or Liberals.
About four out of five of those on the right who think a government shutdown would be good would blame Obama. I doubt they are planning to give him credit; I would bet instead they’re more likely to be itching for the chance to go on Fox News and blast Obama for doing such a terrible thing. In other words, playing the blame game. (Of course, we don't know for certain.) They appear to be willing to trade harm to large numbers of people in return for short-term political gain; they are strategic partisans. One way to check would be to ask a different question: who would be responsible for the shutdown (more neutral wording) or who would you credit for the shutdown (positive wording).
On the left, too, there are people who appear to be strategic partisans, people who think a government shutdown is good and would blame Republicans. Of course, the goal on the left presumably is to reduce long-term harm to people by reducing Republican power, which makes it a little different.
The left does it, the right does it; can’t we all just get along in one big bipartisan lovefest? No, because this is not the New York Times, and I am not bound to ignore reality, and so I saw this: the poo-flingers on the right vastly outnumber the strategists on the left. As anybody on the left could tell you, judging by the vast piles of poo that have been flying our way for decades now. For every left-leaning voter ready to strategically blame Republicans, there are three right-leaning poo-flinging monkeys:
(And here's a version if you're feeling cranky .)