Democratic Self-Sabotage
January 28th, 2009at 11:00pm Posted by Eli
I guess I can’t really say that this is a surprise…
Well, it passed. After taking out family planning money and ditching bankruptcy reform, plus including significant tax cuts, not a single Republican voted for it. It’s like Democrats are negotiating with themselves. They give things up and get no votes in exchange.
(…)
It’s one thing to get Republican votes in exchange for a compromise. It’s another thing to compromise and get nothing in return.
I’m pretty sure that giving stuff up and getting nothing in return is not actually called “compromise” – I think it’s more like “getting punk’d.”
Now the question is what lesson Obama will learn from this. Will it be, “I won’t get Republican votes no matter what I do, nor do I need them, so I’ll just push for good solid progressive legislation that works and make Republicans explain themselves in 2010,” or will it be, “I guess I need to give up more and be more centrist if I want to win over Republicans to give me a cosmetic bipartisan majority”?
It sounds a lot like the story of the Democratic approach to elections, where every victory is the result of a shrewd appeal to the political center (all hail the genius of Rahm!), and every defeat is the result of being too far left and scaring the center away… even when the VP candidate is Joe Lieberman.
Entry Filed under: Democrats,Economy,Obama,Politics,Republicans,Wankers
