The pundit class is chattering..
Well, they always do, but they're particularly breathless right now.."
"Senator X says we're going over the fiscal cliff!"
"House Member Y says he'd rather stick his whole hand into a sausage grinder then raise taxes."
Here's the thing.. we just need to make sure that we stay the course, and keep the focused message. The message? It's below that orange squiggly thing.
We have just a number of days in the current legislative session to go. The Republicans are on the defensive. More than six out of ten folks say if we go off the fiscal cliff, the Republicans will be judged at fault. But they're trying a tactic that's worked before.. it's called "Make the Democrats negotiate with themselves.
It's like when you were six, and your parents wanted you to finish your vegetables at the dinner table. You just sat there, and said "No."
Five minutes later, they said "Ok, just three more bites."
If you sat there, and didn't do anything, they'd try something, anything to break the deadlock. Finally they said, one bite and you can go."
Finally, you took a small bite, and then.. probably came down later on saying "Mom/Dad, I'm hungry.."
The Republicans have used this tactic before. They just plain refuse to negotiate. We all know that we're not going to get what our first offer is.. as much as we'd love to. They're hoping that we'll look at the fiscal cliff, and they can use the Republican chattering machine to deflect SOME of the blame towards Democratic congress members. That increases the pressure, so we become like the parent, wheedling, making more and more offers..
"Ok, fine, $800 billion of taxes instead of $1 Billion.. and $300 billion in benefit cuts"
Then a week passes, and like the French from the Monty Python skit, sit back insult us.
So, desperate to make a deal, because WE'RE the reasonable adults in the room, we lower it..
"Geez you're being stubborn. $600 billion of taxes and $350 billion in benefit cuts..
But we don't need to. You see, most of the stuff.. if we just wait patiently, will come our way anyway. The Republicans know where the blame will be apportioned. They will lose even more of their tenuous hold on the middle and middle-right parts of the country if there's financial pain. Most of the damage from the fiscal cliff that will hit the middle class can be corrected retroactively pretty easily.
So, for the Republicans, we shouldn't be telling them "Well, if you eat the vegetables now, you won't have to eat as much of them.." we need to tell them "You have two options. You can eat the vegetables now.. or you can eat the vegetables later, when they are cold and yucky.. and then go to bed without dessert."
For that to work, however, we need a simple message to our congressmen, our Representatives, to our Senators, and OUR President. No need for analogies, or long flowery speeches. Three simple words.
STAY THE COURSE.