A never seen before element is introduced into the deficit discussions. What are the long term ramifications?
There seems to be a major misunderstanding about the 2010 election. While I saw it as Dems rejecting Blue Dogs and staying home, indicating that a swing left is needed by the Party, others interpreted it as independents breaking right, mandating that the Democratic Party move even farther to the right, which of course marginalizes the Left/Progressive/Old School Dem (labor, civil rights, social justice, New Deal Great Society) even more.
President Obama and his advisers appear to have decided the second interpretation is the one to go with - swing even harder right andtry to pick up independents and essentially tell the left one more time to F!@k off .
Okay, in keeping with that viewpoint, the President decides to show how truly radical a Democrat he is, not one of those old Democrats with all their impassioned rhetoric about social safety nets and being the watchdogs and care takers for the the poor, the sick and the elderly and all that stuff. Nope, not only will he entertain talk about Medicare and Medicaid cuts, he will one up everyone and throw a Social Security chip on the table for extra dramatic impact.
The crowd around the poker table gasps. No Dem in history has tossed out that chip. Most Dems didn't even realize that that particular chip had ever been manufactured, and yet here is the President producing it from his sleeve. "Bet you've never seen one of these before," he says as he flips it nonchalantly onto the table.
Even the Republicans recoil. The chip is so laden with impact and unforeseen political consequences that it burns a hole through the poker table. Speaker Boehner gets up. "We're crazy, but we're not that crazy."
Now to today. I have no idea what the actual outcome of the debt ceiling debate will be and what the actual cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will be, if any. The President has said he will not allow any changes that are "fundamentally unfair" whatever the hell that means.
But from this day forward, in my opinion, the Democrats can no longer be viewed as the protectors and champions of the New Deal and the Great Society programs which materially altered for the better the lives of millions - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Dems are becoming just as involved in their dismantlement as the Republicans, or at the very least, their President is. Imagine casting off such a heavy legacy and history for the transitory political purposes of appealing to independents and moderate voters!
Only it won't be transitory, it will permanently alter the landscape.
As the policies and viewpoint of the of the two parties continue to meld into one mushy centrist middle, that image of the Democrats as the last bastion of protection for those programs has just disappeared. That was their strongest differentiation from the Republicans. President Obama just threw away the reason for the Democrats very existence!
For those who think cutting benefits and screwing up people's lives is a grand poker game, John Boehner was the one who walked away from the table. I think he and other Republicans can lay claim to a line of debate, that they saved Social Security from the Democrats! How f!@#ed up is that?
In my opinion, the drive of the President to be a bi-partisan, centrist, deficit cutting, safety net reducing President and Party has just made the Democratic Party's battles in the next election cycle doubly difficult.
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UPDATE
The original introduction and closing sentence in my first version of this diary were needlessly divisive and distracting, so I edited them out. The point I was trying to make, is simply -
How will Democrats differentiate themselves in the future from Republicans now that this critical comparison point is gone? How will this impact the next elections and the future of the Party?