The politics of revulsion
By Tom Quiner
The public doesn’t like Democrats. They like Republicans even less.
All of this revulsion doesn’t bode well for Republicans in the latest round of “continuing resolution” discussions to fund the government at sequester-spending levels.
Some Republicans want to attach a rider which delays or entirely defunds Obamacare for a year. Democrats won’t let it happen, should the rider be attached. This new round of brinkmanship would threaten a shutdown of government. If that happens, Republicans lose, and probably lose big.
Just ask Newt Gingrich who tried the same thing during the Clinton years … and lost.
Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, supports the idea of defunding Obamacare:
“With all that said, the CR that Congress will soon consider to keep our dysfunctional government open past September 30 is actually a major opportunity to save our people from the job-killing disaster that is ObamaCare. Because a major piece of its implementation begins on October 1, this short-term budget represents our last chance to stop it by defunding it.
Short-term budgets are a terrible way to run a government, but if we can pass one that defunds ObamaCare, we will be doing America’s workers and job creators a huge service that will be worth it.
From the imperfect CR process, defunding ObamaCare would produce a clear-cut victory for American workers and families. Settling for anything less would be devastating to them.”
I’m a big fan of Senator Rubio. I’d like to see Obamacare defunded, too, but I don’t see anyway it can happen any sooner than 2017, and Republican strong arm tactics now could hurt them in next year’s mid term elections.
The Wall Street Journal doesn’t agree with Rubio:
“Some Republicans think they are sure to hold the House in 2014 no matter what happens because of gerrymandering, but even those levees won’t hold if there’s a wave of revulsion against the GOP. Marginal seats still matter for controlling Congress. The kamikazes could end up ensuring the return of all-Democratic rule.”
Right or wrong, Republicans have the ability to generate more revulsion than Democrats with the public. President Obama would take a cue from President Clinton and win the PR war with one, simple sentence: “I won’t let them take your Social Security away from you.”
Whether the statement is true or not doesn’t matter. It works. End of story.
Republicans lose.
I agree with your analysis 100%.
I would take it further and state that Obamacare is here to stay and Republicans have backed themselves into the corner so that any road bumps with it can easily be blamed on Republicans because they have been fighting against it since the beginning.
Perception is everything and Republicans are perceived as not playing well with others.
There is a chance Obamacare can be revoked, but it won’t happen unless Republicans retake the Senate. However, they need to agree on an alternative plan. They have a number of good models from which to choose which are patient friendly, unlike Obamacare. Even more, they would be smart to praise some of the noble goals of Obamacare, which will never be realized because of its bureaucratic structure, and make the case how they can do a better job accomplishing them.
If Republicans would have got on board sooner then they would have been seen as bridge builders. Then any problems would rightly go back to the Democrats. You wouldn’t even have to say “See, I told you so.”
Once Obama was elected, the Republicans were aced out of the talks. Obama made it all very clear when he said, “I won, you lost.” I agree that Republicans should have acted when they controlled Congress prior to 2006. Thanks for writing.
I’m not at all sure most Republicans actually want to defund Obamacare. They very well may want the increased government intrusion into our lives under its auspices and are willing to have it belong to the democrats.
We have the evil feckless party. And the stupid party.