It’s hard to imagine Congress getting any less popular. The Republicans are succeeding in weakening the president, but they’re making themselves even weaker in the process. I can’t say for sure that this past weekend was a pivotal moment, but I think we may look back on it as the point in time when something snapped. It’s like the Republicans kept pushing on a door, and pushing and pushing some more, with the idea that they were getting rewarded for bad behavior. But all the time the tension was rising and the resistance was building, until the door snapped back in their faces and sent them sprawling.
The presidency has a reputation for being stronger than it is in reality, and the Republicans rejoice in making Obama look impotent in any way that they can. They hold his appointments. They filibuster everything. They refuse to compromise on almost anything. This infuriates liberals and progressives who have big hopes and dreams and can’t understand why they’re not coming true. We all begin infighting and blaming each other. The public gets disgusted with the whole spectacle and starts to believe government is worthless. And the GOP benefits coming and going.
But the president is still the only politician in the country that has anywhere near decent poll numbers. People trust him more than they trust anyone else. And you can’t beat something with nothing. And that’s about the size of Mitt Romney…a great big nothing. And the rest of the GOP field is laughable.
The president might not be able to try liberal solutions to the unemployment problem, but he didn’t overreach so far that he undermined our country’s credit rating and caused a 600-point sell-off in the stock market. The Republicans did that to nothing but cheerleading from their presidential contenders.
So, what now? Will the results in Wisconsin matter? Is anything going to change?
