I’ve written articles like Steven Benen’s in the past and will probably do so in the future, but, lately, whenever I’ve been tempted to craft one I just drop the idea and move on. Why? Because I’ve come to the conclusion that today’s conservatives are utterly unconvinced by the argument that their hero was considerably to the left of where they are today.
They don’t see Reagan’s presidency as the ideal. They see it as the beginning. He was the great man who got the ball rolling, not the man who governed (Goldilocks-style) just right. If Reagan raised taxes more than any peacetime president it was because he had to deal with Tip O’Neill and a bunch of RINO’s who have since been drummed out of the party. Reagan was as conservative as he could get away with being.
So, telling Republicans how reasonable Reagan was doesn’t impress today’s Republicans; it just reminds them of how much progress they’ve made.
And I’m tired of writing things that make Republicans feel warm all over.
Indeed. When Benen writes (correctly) that Obama’s actions (forced upon him) put him to the right of budget busting Ronald Reagan on taxes, that isn’t hurtful to members of the right.
At least, not thinking ones. And unthinking Republicans are unreachable anyway, and will just call you a commie socialist liar or something for insinuating that Saint Ronnie ever raised a single cent in taxes, so that’s a lost cause.
It’s the ultimate in self-defeating arguments.
Benen should have stopped right there. That’s all you need to know about why the GOP has gone over the cliff.
He has made their primary tactic of drawing a distinction force them ever to more extreme decisions, just by yielding. Whether this is a deliberate strategy on his part or just the byproduct of his ideas about bring Americans together–being the President of all of the people–doesn’t matter. Conscious or not, it has the same effect.
Republican principles have been consistently taken to more extreme and absurd positions. This fact will not be lost of the Republican public servants about to lose their jobs. At least, next year it will not be lost on them after their GOP denies them unemployment benefits.
Well, really, the problem with that quote is that is should actually cause quite a bit of satisfaction. And that’s why I don’t write those kinds of pieces anymore.
Why should that cause satisfaction? To my mind, it’s a somewhat risky political strategy on Obama’s part.
If he’s not playing the long view and has a bit of luck before August, he’s going to be the one who either gets saddled with the failure to raise the debt ceiling or the attack on the middle class. Then, the Republicans can flank him on the left to win.
That’s the risk…overextending oneself from one’s core base in order to gain a broader base. And I’m not equating progressives and the base here. Or even labor. If he touches that third rail, he starts losing African-Americans and a lot of traditional moderate Democrats.
Write whatever you want. That’s not my point.
We must be having some kind of communication failure because I don’t understand your response at (as a response to me).
I’m trying to say that the Republicans in your blockquote should be quite satisfied, not Benen or Obama or me or you.
And I’m saying that it is not about policy at this point it is about the tactics of winning the 2012 election. If Republicans look too close in policy to Barack Hussein Obama, the socialist muslim Kenyan, their base will reject even them and elect more teabaggers. That’s why they’re not satisfied that Obama is moving in their direction….Unless they can get him to absolutely desert the interests of a majority of his base, which he hasn’t done quite yet despite all the howling.
Republicans are afraid that they might lose this one by having to hold the hot potato when the ref calls “Time”.
Tactics so dominate Republican thinking right now that they are trying to outdo each other on the campaign trail with more extreme policy. And the freshmen, those most likely to be zealots, are holding the leadership’s feet to the fire.
The proper move for House Democrats is to vote present until all of the Republicans have their “Yes” votes on raising the debt ceiling locked in. And then add just enough votes that it passes by one vote, with the Dems closest to the Republican position voting first. Heath, you’re first in line.
That’s why Republicans are not satisfied, even though they should have been the first moment Obama rolled out Romneycare as the health care plan. Or capitulated to Kent Conrad in naming a deficit commission. Or even accepted the idea that tax cuts were stimulative in a demand deficit recession. An irritating habit Obama still has–like fingernails on a chalkboard to anyone who has looked at the data.
“Kum ba yah” terrifies Republicans. That’s why they keep upping the ante.
TarHeel, the debt ceiling is policy.
That’s what I mean by the Crazy took over. What was tactical is now real, because they lied to their crazy base and filled their heads with promises of Randian ponies and rainbows. And a lot of the Republicans who got elected don’t realize that McConnell and Boehner, and pretty much all sane people, think they’re out of their tree.
Maybe Obama forced them there, but it was a deal with the devil.
Now, we need to separate old school Republicans like McConnell and Boehner from the wingnuts that they lead. My point is that these guys are afraid to stand up to the Crazy in their caucuses and base and tell the truth. Because the truth is that they’re both frauds.
But conservatives are making progress. Lots of it. And they have plenty of reason to be satisfied with a situation where traditional Republicans are no longer fit to lead the party.
Bring on Jim DeMint!!
But trying to maintain a significant distance between the GOP position and what Obama agrees to is tactics.
Yes, bring on Jim DeMint. When does he throw his hat into the Presidential donnybrook?
You cannot determine whether the “progress” conservatives are making is real or illusory until the legislation passes the Congress. And by state legislatures being ahead of Congress on some of this austerity, folks are beginning to see what the real consequences are. It’s too early to say, but there is the distinct possibility of a huge backlash against conservatism before November 2012.
“Traditional Republicans” is a relative term. In the 1970s, Richard Lugar would be considered a movement conservative. Today he is almost marginalized as a liberal. Each generation’s “traditional Republican” has been roughly shoved aside as new blood scrambles for power. Judging from the amount of white hair, that hasn’t happened as much in the Democratic Party. Republicans may be satisfied on July 3, 2011 with how well their tactics over the last two and a half years have worked, but victory might turn out to be the worst thing to happen to the Republican Party since 1964. If my personal situation were not so extremely on the line in this fight, I might be selling the popcorn. Come October, there will be something to tell your grandkids about—one way or the other.
I blame Obama. Torturing historical analogies should be a matter for The Hauge.
Steve Benen performs a useful service – he reminds us, over and over again, exactly why Republican arguments are illogical and hypocritical. Sometimes this is tedious, but somebody has to do it. It may seem like a fool’s errand, but I do think there is something worthwhile in pointing out the intellectual bankruptcy of the right. Like water dripping on stone, eventually the arguments will make a mark.
That said, I understand completely why you don’t feel like doing the same, and in fact I turn to this blog for a different kind of analysis.
I guess these days I feel more like the stone and less like the water.