You think it's shocking to see Republicans tearing through rights like a hot knife through butter? Believe me, you're not half as shocked as one group I know: the Republicans.
Republicans honestly never expected to be in this position. Sure, Fox News kept up the drum beat, but every Republican I know, every former candidate, every GOP campaign worker, every ex-office holder, every rank and file Republican... they had all given up. It wasn't just a few Democrats who thought the D-ticket had locked down the ballot box for the next decade or so. Well before Election Day in 2008, Republicans could hear the bell tolling. They expected to pack their bags, move to the wilderness, and reinvent themselves. Hello, 2020, we're Republicans, but not like those guys you knew before. Not at all.
And why not expect a long term on the sidelines? They understood well enough that they had screwed up. The conservative policy of using the military to solve every problem – even problems that didn't exist – had landed the nation in two protracted, exhausting, fruitless wars with neither a prospect of immediate victory nor even a good idea what victory might look like. Conservative foreign policy, founded on exceptionalism grown into overweening vanity, had weakened old relationships and pushed away even our staunchest allies. Conservative deregulation had turned the markets into a showplace for elaborate thievery, and the banks into shells stuffed with worthless paper. Conservative trickle-down economics had sent the wages of the vast majority of Americans into reverse, sent jobs by the millions winging overseas, opened a yawning gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else, and brought on the biggest economic crisis in eighty years.
Republicans had taken a prosperous, peaceful nation with a budget surplus and turned it into a nation tottering on the edge of economic catastrophe, with an overextended military and nothing but lint in the bank account. When President Obama came into the office with huge levels of support, it wasn't just that people got caught up in the spirit of the occasion. It was relief. The Republicans, whose every working principle had turned out to be not just wrong but dead wrong, were gone.
All Democrats had to do was to offer an alternative.
Republicans didn't have any master strategy. They didn't have a clue how to get back on top. But as it turned out, they didn't need one.
Instead Republicans only had to sit on their hands as the Democrats rewarded the people who brought down the economy and failed to bring anyone to justice for the complete failure of the system that the Republicans had built up to fail. Failed to bring anyone to justice for deliberately misleading the American people into a war that has taken thousands of lives. Failed even to restore the rule of law and the rights of the accused. Democrats didn't just fall short in addressing these destructive, corrosive policies, it was far worse than that. They enshrined the people who had broken the economy, showering the economy wreckers with additional wealth if only they would stay on to tend what they had destroyed. They seconded and expanded on the demolition of rights to a speedy trial, rights to confront your accuser, rights to know the charges against you. With Democrats proving that they didn't really believe in most of those rights supposedly secured by the Constitution, Republicans were overjoyed. They knew they'd have no trouble in getting the rest.
It took no more than a few rude shouts and baseless accusations to upend the health care bill and turn it into a windfall for the very same companies that were causing the health care crisis. Just a few repetitions of "socialism" were all that was required to make sure the stimulus plan spent its money in the exact form of funding that had just been demonstrated as the least effective means of creating jobs.
Republicans got the bills they wanted without even voting for them. Their backers got fat with cash, and they and were still positioned to run with much righteous anger against the Democrats who has fumbled around before passing Republican-shaped bills. It was a win-win that put a huge wind at the Republican's backs, and day by day they gathered confidence and strength. Because there was no one in their way.
No matter what you think of St. Paul, his letter to the church at Corinth has some beautiful language.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Nice, isn't it?
There's a political equivalent of this statement.
If you have a majority in the House and the Senate, but if you lack the courage of your convictions, you're just a mob. If you know exactly what should be done, have every fact on your side, and have the votes lined up to pass legislation by the gross ton, but you don't have the courage of your convictions, you're not only going to accomplish nothing, you are nothing.
What happened in 2010? Poll after poll showed that Americans still held Republicans more to blame for the failure of the economy, still liked them
less than the Democrats. The public agreed with Democratic ideas, favored progressive positions on issues across the board. Only that same public voted for Republicans.
Why? Because at least the Republicans seemed to know what they stood for. They weren't afraid to put out their message and not treat it like a poor relative they were embarrassed to know. They didn't volunteer to compromise their convictions before negotiations even started.
Compromise is not evil. America is built on the idea of compromise. But compromise is not a principle, it's just a tactic. One that can be used wisely, or poorly. Democrats seemed willing to compromise on everything, which made it hard to believe that Democrats really believed in anything. Politically, that's about as attractive as a possum that's been run over by a semi.
While we're on that note, swooping in at the last minute to break a deadlock and get legislation across the line might be very satisfying. I guess it must be, because some people seem to love working that way. However, it's a bad tactic. Nobody elects a president by thinking "now which one of these would be the best arbiter-in-chief?" No one ever gushed, "He doesn't hold to his positions, but look at those negotiation skills!" The national referee is not what we hired. You can be the best behind the scenes guy in the history of behind the scenes guys, and you know what? You'll lose even when you win. Leadership means getting in front of the issue, steering it, forcing it. Even throwing it out and starting over. It doesn't mean rubbing your hands and waiting for the call to the bullpen.
One thing is sure, Republicans won't let this opportunity pass. It may be an unexpected windfall, but they're going to make the most of it. They have passionate intensity, they are deadly serious, and they are not scared of Democrats. They've quit even thinking about Democratic politicians.
Now they're going after the people who have supported you. They're not even going to pretend this time. They're not trying to sugar coat it. They intend to take what little money and what few rights remain, and put them where they're they only ones who can use them.
They're not playing to win 2012. They're playing for the end game.
