Jamie Friedland's picture

    Ok, GOP, Let’s Talk About Compromise

    I made the mistake of turning on the TV this morning.  Ms. Generic Correspondent was interviewing triumphant supporters from John Boehner’s district in Ohio about what their win means for America.  What I heard floored me.  This was live and I was too stunned to think to record it, so I’m paraphrasing:

    OHIO RESIDENT:  “For the last 2 years, it’s been Obama’s way or the highway.  Finally we’ll get some compromise in this country.”

    REPORTER: “You really think this election will result in more compromise?”

    OHIO RESIDENT: “Yup.  That’s what this election said to Congress.  It’s time for Democrats to actually work with Republicans now.”

    For starters, we really need to set the record straight on the alleged liberalism of Obama’s first two years.  He embraced tax cuts and offshore drilling and punted on much of the liberal agenda.  There’s a reason the base didn’t come out to support Democrats yesterday, and it’s not because we went too far.  More on this later.

    Back to Boehner’s band of merry [white] men, this was not an isolated incident.  Most of the guys that were interviewed in this segment spoke about compromise.  What’s wrong with a conciliatory post-victory tone?  It’s a disingenuous 180-degree reversal.  Sure, one district’s Kool-Aid could go bad, but Boehner’s?  That’s bizarre.

    Just last week, in Boehner’s own words:

    “Now is not a time for compromise, and I can tell you we will not compromise on our principles.” 

    And you want to tell Democrats about misinterpreting a mandate?  Please. 

    I know conservative activists only listen to their Fox News echo chamber, but surely they must at least listen to their candidate when he’s on Fox News! Especially when that man is now a glowing beacon in the House of Representatives, piercing the darkness to guide them through.… ok, I don’t have an end to this metaphor – the man is orange. 

    The point is, the next two years will be nothing but gridlock.  Congressional Republicans have come right out and said that their single highest legislative priority is making sure Obama doesn’t get reelected. 

    That means the only “compromise” they will propose or accept is the kind that makes Obama less appealing to his base.  They will advance nothing that doesn’t detract from Obama’s re-electability.  House Republicans will reach across the aisle, but they will extend a sword, not their empty hands; they will allow Obama to move forward only by pulling himself up their blade towards the hilt.

    With this strategy in place, let me assure you, compromise is dead.  Conservatives hijacked the contemporary narrative, but in retrospect we will see that Obama briefly attempted centrist bipartisanship – and it failed.  Liberals were unsatisfied and conservatives either feigned or successfully deluded themselves into their trusty partisan outrage. 

    Obama’s attempt at compromise was unilateral disarmament, and the GOP hit with everything it had the moment he let down his shield.  Clearly, that was good short-term electoral strategy.  Obama had hoped that Americans would appreciate this effort to transcend partisan politics.  That did not happen.

    So yesterday, the GOP won big.  But conservatives, don’t you dare for a second claim to have the moral high ground and make false overtures of cooperation.  That’s not what’s going to happen and it’s not even what you want.  You wanted gridlock and now you’ve got it.  Congratulations. 

    Now own it.  Or as your mercifully endangered Mama Grizzlies would say, “Man Up.”    

     

    Comments

    Ummmmm, I'd rather make sure WE own the fact that compromise turned out ton be unilateral disarmament. 

    Because I am completely convinced a lot of the Democratic leadership is going to follow up their appeaser appetizer with an entre of unconditional surrender.


    Not quite sure I follow fully on your first point - if you mean we made the effort, they rebuffed it, let's make sure America remembers that, then I agree.  But I too am concerned about how the party will react right now.  Will write more on this soon, but the Obama we elected may not be the candidate we need in 2012 at this point.  Not saying he cannot be that candidate, just that he currently isn't.  


    I am not a political animal. As much as I love it, I don't understand the nuances, and I resent the gamesmanship. I would prefer that everyone just want what is best for Americans, as a whole, and work towards that together. Silly me.

    I think the best we can hope for right now is gridlock. Hopefully the repubs will not be able to advance their agenda, and we will have 2 years to come up with a coherent message for the '12 elections.

    As emotionally devastating as this election is, intellectually, I know the country will probably survive. The problem is, this selfish America is not the America I love. I just don't know how to move her in the direction I want to see her go. It is an uphill battle, and I'm just not sure there are enough like-minded people to make it happen.

    I will probably say this 100 times today. Speaker Boehner. Those 2 words say it all.


    Hi Stilli, will be writing more on this soon too (had a lot of thoughts stewing in these last 6 weeks that didn't have time to make it to a keyboard before the election), but in short I think with the filibuster in place, gridlock is all we were going to get.  Repubs can't advance their agenda with just the House, but maybe now people will start to hold them responsible for the obstructionism.  And you may have noticed I still haven't typed those words.  Not out of denial, just...rather not.  


    Here is a good place as any to stress - Bohner isn't speaker yet. Pelosi holds the Gavel until January.

    Their time is short, not at an end. What the Democrats do with this last moment of complete control will be a big indicator of the party actually stands for. Hopefully the legislators rise to tell Obama he can take his "centrist compromise" baloney and shove it where the doesn't shine - American politics is war, not beanbag. If they can't do that, the party is all but useless IMO.

     


    Thoust are living in a dream land. Ain't no way gonna happen.


    I was annoyed when both Senate Democrats and Obama kept offering GOPer's the olive branch of bipartisianship only to find their efforts at constructive dialogue in the legislative process was beeing compromised and ultimately rejected once the final bill was watered down by the GOPer's to where it was of little or no use to the public. It never occurred to them they were being made fools of and I suspect the GOPer's will kept it up in the Senate while the House starts to roll back the carpet and look under the couch cushions to see if there's anything of political value that can be exploited for purely political purposes all while ignoring the public needing them to concentrate their efforts at cleaning up the mess left by the GOPer's and Bu$h that is still festering unabated. It will serve both Obama and the Democrats right for being foolish enough to think GOPer's believed in service to their country and its' people...they only believe in themselves.


    You know. I blame Democrats for all of that, not Republicans. The Republicans came out and announced they intended to do exactly what they did. They held a press conference, went on the pundit circuit ... everything.They said their definition of "compromise" was Democrats doing exactly what Republicans want. Period.

    Sure their announced intentions totally sucked, but it's not like they pretended they'd compromise and then did a Lucy with the football every time. It's like if Lucy sat in her house and held the footbal saying "I'll never let you kick this!" and Charlie Brown went alone out into the field and barreled forward at full steam aiming for where he wished the football might be and swiped at thin air. That makes him a victim of his own stupidity not of a wily adversary.


    I agree with Beetlejuice on this.  Kgb, you make a good point and I'm frustrated that we didn't switch tactics sooner, but I think after that campaign Obama/Dems had to at least give it a shot.  How long they needed to try it the real question and for that we can prob blame Dems, but they had to try.


    Boehner crying like a little girl always makes me laugh with derision.  What a schmuck. 

    Notice he was wasn't crying because of his desire to help the American people, he was crying with joy at the fulfillment of his own dreams of attaining power.  (Side-note: Is it me, or does Boehner seem to have surrounded himself with a bunch of log-cabin Republicans? Will he be the first gay-like, little girl sobbing, Speaker of the House?)  Man up indeed.


    The majority of these Ohio voters will not follow, understand or comprehend what Boehner and company are going to do to them and the country. And if they do have moments of comprehension they will forget it faster than a 30 second political attack ad. They are pawns on the chessboard called America, an entity owned and controlled by Koch, Murdoch and the rich and powerful.

    Fox News and the GOP echo chamber will make sure that Obama and the Democrats take the blame if the economy relapses as the Republicans cut taxes on the wealthy while cutting unemployment, gov't spending, regulations and anything else they can that doesn't affect the gov't money flowing to the big corporate GOP donors and Wall Street.

    If there is a price to be paid for the lack of good government in America, it will be paid as it always is, by children living in poverty, the middle class, the sick and the poor. Most voters will, as always, be taken in by the carnival barker/snake oil sales pitch of 'values', 'limited gov't, and 'low taxes' (for the investor class) that the GOP has used so successfully over the last 40 years.

     


    Look, Eric Cantor's idea of "compromise" two years ago was that Obama do everything his way. That was when the House GOP had only 180 votes (a smaller minority than the House Dems will have over the next two years).

    This continues to be spun on the right as a moment of Obama refusing to compromise, and it's being spoun that way today, because Obama had the nerve to say that "Elections have consequences." This is spun by the right as an arrogant response to Cantor's small "common-sense" proposals, when in fact Cantor was demanding that the stimulus only follow conservative ideas and abandon liberal ideas completely.


    The point is, the next two years will be nothing but gridlock.  Congressional Republicans have come right out and said that their single highest legislative priority is making sure Obama doesn’t get reelected. 

    That means the only “compromise” they will propose or accept is the kind that makes Obama less appealing to his base.  They will advance nothing that doesn’t detract from Obama’s re-electability.  House Republicans will reach across the aisle, but they will extend a sword, not their empty hands; they will allow Obama to move forward only by pulling himself up their blade towards the hilt.

    Absolutely on target.  When I heard Obama today talking about working together I hoped it was the standard, canned "gotta do it cuz we lost" speech, because if it came from the heart he has a really short memory. 

    The Republicans don't care about the state of the nation, even in these parlous times, so why would anyone think that, after a victory, they're suddenly going to be thinking compromise?  Why would they?  The only compromise they're looking for is what they can get from the Dems.  Gridlock ahead unless they get their way, so it's two plus years of either stagnation or backward movement.

    In 2012 the job market will be worse, the economy will be worse, the environment will be worse, and patience will be at an all-time low.  Goodbye, Obama.  Hello, any old demagogue with a glib tongue.

    And there's nothing anybody on the scene today can do to stop it.  Can you stand it?


    Well stated. My hope still has a glimmer of life that Obama may finally act like a Democrat and a President, with some bite and backbone, and not like the moderator of a committee of respected university professors when he deals with the likes of Boehner and McConnell. These people are the worst this society has to offer, and are anything but 'public servants'.


    Along the lines of my comment to Betlejuice upthread. The GOP has come out and loudly proclaimed that they have no intention of compromising. McConnell has said thier primary goal is to destroy Obama before 2012. I don't see how Democrats can just keep trying to pretend reality is something it's not.

    I don't get it. I sure hope, like you, that it was just a rote statement of graciousness in defeat. But I can't shake the sinking feeling in my gut that he's surrounded himself with people who are validating the basic methodology that has gotten us to this point in the first place.

    (Oh, congrats on your elevation to DagBlogess!)


    He just can't go for the jugular; it's just not in his makeup, I guess.  He's still trying to convince, as if he's in a courtroom making a case in front of judge and jury.  Maybe he thought Rahm would be the bad cop and he wouldn't ever have to get his hands dirty.  What he needs to do is listen to someone like Elizabeth Warren.  She's a tiger on a velvet cushion.  Lookin good but dangerous as hell when riled.

    Thanks for the congrats, kgb.  Mighty nice of you.


    "those muslins will see any sign of peacemeaking as weakness!" (i detect a parallel. repugs treat bipartisan attempts as "weakness".)

    Jamie, according to Marc Ambinder,  the republicans plan to initiate hearings on the  "scientific fraud" known as Global Warming. It's payback time for all that money the oil magnates provided through the CofC.  It could be countered in the Senate, of course, if there were any democrats in the Senate who had a spine, but there aren't.


    I'd really get out the popcorn if they tried to have hearings on the "fraudulent science" of human evolution. I'd love to see another Dover like smackdown of rightwing stupidity on a national scale.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html

     


    Like DanK said

    Remember Terry Schiavo.   Republican wingers in power have proven they are perfectly capable of hanging themselves in nooses of their own creation.

    Lookie who I just found on google news, feeling left out--there was a giant wingnut party for the last year and he was too busy to attend:

    DeLay sees larger political role after trial
    Ex-lawmaker wishes he had been part of these elections


    AmiBlue's right, they definitely have this in the works.  Popcorn it is.  ...and a keyboard.


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