Visual source: Newseum
Eugene Robinson points out the lack of big ideas in our national policy debate:
This is a moment when policymakers should be thinking big, not small. History will little note nor long remember that the payroll tax holiday was extended for two months rather than 12. The complex and difficult questions we’re avoiding, however, may haunt us through the century.
Let me be clear that I applaud President Obama and the Democrats for the political victory they won last week. The impact was to weaken the influence of the most reactionary and clueless faction in Congress — the Tea Party Republicans — and strengthen the hand of both progressives and pragmatic conservatives. This can only be a good thing.
But let me also be honest: It’s crazy to have spent so much brainpower and energy on a skirmish that was purely tactical, while blithely ignoring the enormous challenges we face. It would be difficult to squander all of our nation’s tremendous advantages. At present, however, we seem to be doing our best.
Meanwhile, Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson write about how their research confined that the Tea Party is laser-focused on a single idea:
For our new book, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism,” we interviewed Tea Party activists across the country over a sixteen-month period and found that the movement is not the monolith it is sometimes portrayed as. The conservative political upsurge has grassroots and elite components with divergent interests and goals.[...] We learned about grassroots Tea Party groups by attending their meetings, interviewing active members and reading hundreds of their websites and message boards. In early 2011, these Tea Partiers had no consistent favorite for the Republican nominee, supporting everyone from Ron Paul to Mike Huckabee to Donald Trump, but they did have one goal in mind for 2012: beating Barack Obama. As one Tea Party member we met in Virginia put it, “we have to get Obama out. Obama and the Communists he’s surrounded himself with.”
Susan Page points out that the Tea Party ideas don't really jive with GOP self-identification:
The conservative, anti--big-government Tea Party movement now provides the most energy in the GOP, but in the latest nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, nearly four in 10 Republicans identified themselves as moderates or liberals. The Republican Party's libertarian strain has provided a solid core of support for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. In Iowa, social conservatives and evangelical Christians who focus on such issues as abortion and same-sex marriage are particularly influential.
Florida Today's editorial board examines the exposed rift between the Tea Part and the GOP:
Republicans have been so eager to take advantage of the tea party’s energy and emotion that they have allowed the inmates to run the asylum. [...] Maybe they are so blinded by ideology that they no longer care about the impact their actions might have on struggling American families.
One reason for Republican angst was that public opinion has become more sensitive to economic justice. Obama’s fiery barnstorming in favor of his American Jobs Act has played a big role.
The president has been on the offensive. For the first time in quite a while, Republicans are backing up.
There's no shortage of ideas from any corner of the GOP on the voter suppression front. From The New York Times:
Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Sorry, they will hear, you have an out-of-state driver’s license. Sorry, your college ID is not valid here. Sorry, we found out that you paid out-of-state tuition, so even though you do have a state driver’s license, you still can’t vote.
Political leaders should be encouraging young adults to participate in civic life, but many Republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can instead to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal.