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If You Believe This One, I've Got a Bridge...

Submitted by Ken Watts on Mon, 03/22/2010 - 14:38

THE DUST HASN'T EVEN BEGUN TO SETTLE yet, and the Republican propaganda machine is already spinning.

"It reminds me of Pat Buchanan's angry rant last year on the Rachel Maddow Show."

The new line is going to be that the health care bill is somehow suspect "because it was completely partisan."

That's a neat little political trick—if it works.

All the Republicans have to do from now on is to refuse to vote for any major bill and they can claim that everything the Democrats do is illegitimate.

They're betting, essentially, that the American voter is stupid, that none of us will ask ourselves just whose fault it is that the bill was partisan.

They think we won't notice:

  1. that Republicans announced their opposition to the bill before it had been written,
  2. that they refused, from day one, to negotiate a single vote for it,
  3. that they also announced—publicly—before seeing the bill, that voting against it was a political strategy designed to make Obama look bad,
  4. that the Democrats, both in the White House and in Congress, spent a full year begging them to participate, making changes in the bills at their request, and doing everything possible to convince them to help write a bi-partisan bill.
  5. that they could have been part of the process, that they could have had a bi-partisan bill, but that they chose not to, and for political reasons.

They also may think we won't notice:

  1. that their talking points were written before the bill was,
  2. that they consistently claimed it was something it wasn't, and
  3. that they never, in eight years, made any attempt to address the problems the Democratic bill now addresses—including the budget deficit, which they claim is their issue.

It's not a new strategy for Republicans, though it is being practiced at a new level.

Do everything you can to stop the government from working, so you can go back to the voters and convince them it's the other guy's fault.

It reminds me of Pat Buchanan's angry rant last year on the Rachel Maddow Show.

Remember?

He argued that Judge Sotomayor shouldn't be on the Supreme court, essentially because she was neither white nor male.

"This country," he ranted, "was built by white folks":

  1. "White males were 100% of the people who wrote the Constitution."
  2. "White males were 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence."
  3. "White males were 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg."
  4. "White males were close to 100% of the people died at Normandy."

He neglected to mention whose fault that was—that those very same white men had excluded women and people of color from the process.

The Republicans would like to use the same tactic on health care reform.

First, they refuse to do what they were elected to do (govern) and do everything they can to keep the Democrats from governing as well.

Then they complain that the Democrats, left on their own, did govern—in spite of them.

What were they supposed to do, clip coupons?

Republicans really think the American voter is that stupid.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are betting that the American voter is smart:

  1. that we'll approve of the people who did their job,
  2. that we won't reward the people who tried to grind government to a halt,
  3. that we'll notice who spent these two years playing politics and who spent it serving the American people.

It will be interesting to see who wins the bet.

Either way, we'll eventually get the government we deserve.

At least, that's what I think today.