August has seen some sweltering political discourse, and it will only get worse before it gets better. Republicans were successful in stymieing a vote before the congressional recess and Republicans have been feeling pretty good about the August town halls.
Below I touch on some of the major points of the last week.
Republicans came out swinging. Aggressive rhetoric inflamed the far right, a demographic the Republican leadership has shown an affinity for embracing and defending. Fanning the flames of the most extreme proved effective at getting the idea of strong opposition into the media discourse. The Republican leadership and media presence has proven to have little compunction about risking violence and harming civil debate with such tactics.
GvR: Lone Wolves Need Hugs Too
While Republican media was pushing the most confrontational and extreme narrative possible, the full force of the left was quite. The right made false claims of death panels and socialist take-overs, Nazi tactics and enemies lists. The media coverage focused on anti-tax libertarians toting weapons and increasingly frequent references to "the tree of liberty." Meanwhile, the very real and pressing need for reform was a side story.
GvR: Into the Wild
In fact, the Democratic Party and the Obama administration in particular seemed taken aback by the actions of the right. Obama responded to the initial attacks defensively but not strongly. As the Republicans grew emboldened and started to set their own agendas, Obama made is more flexible. The Republicans smelled blood and many started see victory on the horizon. Republican congressmen increasingly played to the crowds, boasted to the media, and began to construct their re-election narratives based upon their heroic resistance to socialized medicine and the power grab perpetrated by the Obama White House.
GvR: Poor Cover-age
It will be interesting to see the next week. Democratic leaders have indicated they may be ready to push health reform without the Republicans after a flurry of comments and actions by major Republican players demonstrating explicitly that no compromises would satisfy their resistance to reform.
The need for reform is real. While the administration has been making somewhat of a case for this, we have not seen the impassioned and emotional arguments that garner modern media coverage. If the administration can push this need in front of the American people, the far right will marginalize itself and possibly the Republican leadership that has been so eager to tie itself the fringe.
GvR: Get Off My Back
With Obama's vacation looming and Rahm currently out, we may have to wait until next week to know for sure. The Republicans have been given a lot of rope, we'll see what they do with it.