Niall Stanage, in the Guardian:
Tea is the Republican party’s cocaine: thrilling for a moment, but ruinous over time.
But, it’s really not just the Tea Party. For me, it’s the Party of No strategy. The Republicans did not heed the president’s advice. Back in January the president paid a visit to the House Republicans’ retreat in Baltimore. In responding to a question from Rep. Martha Blackburn of Tennessee, the president made the following observations:
“So all I’m saying is, we’ve got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality. I’m not suggesting that we’re going to agree on everything, whether it’s on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.
“I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.
“And I would just say that we have to think about tone. It’s not just on your side, by the way — it’s on our side, as well. This is part of what’s happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do.”
The key is that the Republicans did in fact become vulnerable in their own base. Republicans who showed any degree of reasonableness starting losing primaries. And the people winning those primaries, and the voters who fueled those victories, show every sign of believing the rhetoric rather than the reality. What started off as a stunt, turned into a monster that the Republicans could no longer control. So far, the damage has been electoral. While overall the juice from the Tea Party has ramped up enthusiasm in the base, there’s no question that the Republicans have damaged their prospects of winning a half dozen Senate seats. But really radical candidates are going to win a lot of House seats and at least a couple of Senate seats, and then they are going to expect the Republican Party to continue with their Party of No strategy. Anyone who stands in the way of total-obstruction-all-the-time is going to face a challenge from the loony right. They created a caricature of the president and they can’t very well compromise with the devil without infuriating their supporters.
This is why we can’t afford any losses on Tuesday. Let me focus your mind on the consequences of increased Republican power. Yesterday, the president sat down with a bunch of bloggers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He was asked if he supported filibuster reform, and this is part of what he said in response:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ve got to be careful about not looking like I’m big-footing Congress. We’ve got separate branches of government. The House and the Senate have their own rules. And they are very protective of those prerogatives.
I will say that as just an observer of our political process that if we do not fix how the filibuster is used in the Senate, then it is going to be very difficult for us over the long term to compete in a very fast moving global environment.
What keeps me up at night is China, Germany, India, Brazil — they’re moving. They make decisions, we’re going to pursue clean energy, and the next thing you know they’ve cornered half the clean energy market; we’re going to develop high-speed rail in the span of five years — suddenly they’ve got high-speed rail lines going; we’re going to promote exports, here’s what we’re going to do — boom, they get going.
And if we can’t sort of execute on key issues that will determine our competitiveness over the long term, we’re going to fall behind — we are going to fall behind.
How can this country execute anything if there are a bunch of crazy Republican senators filibustering everything? A Republican House will just add to the pain.
Our country is effectively screwed if these elections go off as predicted. And, if you need any more proof, just look at this.
