| You see, because of all of the press, the Repugs are already forgetting that their control of the House is pretty much meaningless in reality. There are more than enough Democrats to block anything they want in the Senate. They are also inflating hopes in the minds of their teabaggery weirdo constituents that are destined to be dashed. If they are to be dashed, then why not by Democrats?
It behooves Democrats to show the weakness of the Repugs. The only way this fails is to compromise. This is why you see so many calls in the MSM and from Repugs to "compromise". But as we all know, "compromise" means Dems surrender. I'm saying, the Repugs only have as much power as you believe. If you choose to believe they have none, then you have no need to compromise. If you choose to fall into the same loser way of thinking the Democrats always seem to fall into, you'll inflate the size of their power and cave to everything they want. That's why in this case, the Democrats actually have MORE power than the Repugs because Repug power is DEPENDENT upon what Democrats do.
The Repugs plan in March to try to blackmail the Democrats into supporting draconian cuts in entitlements and the rest of discretionary spending, save for defense spending. This will most likely cause a government shutdown and possibly a debt default. No matter how hard or difficult the consequences of this is, it is incumbent for Democrats to hang together and say NO.
There are 3 possible outcomes for the Repugs by doing this and they're all bad. 1: The government shuts down and defaults, spawning an even greater financial crisis and catapulting us into full blown Depression. A Depression that they will take full blame for and the contrasts between the parties will be made all too clear. 2: The Democrats say NO, the Repugs threaten and then cave at the end. The Democrats get their way, the Repugs inherent weakness is fully exposed and the teabaggers go after them with the long knives because they backed down. 3: Simply by proposing the insane cuts they want, all of the constituents that make up these programs (especially seniors) get so angry that they come after the Repugs, the Repugs cower, and everything from scenario 2 happens anyway.
The only way Democrats lose is by playing the Repug game. That means binding Obama's hands so he can't reflexively cave in. Engaging in anyway with the Repugs enables them to pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. If your enemy is intent on destroying himself, let him. Democratic groups must make it painfully clear to Obama that if he caves in anyway on this he WILL be primaried. It simply isn't acceptable for him to threaten the electability of the rest of the party simply because he can't help himself but to incompetently negotiate and reflexively cave.
Simply by saying no, the myth of Repug dominance or of a comeback is destroyed. Their comeback is made stillborn and they are shown to be as incompetent as we've said they are. That turnaround will be even more stunning than the one the Democrats just experienced. |