Republican Complacency Could Spell Defeat
 | | Don't worry; they only did it for the children |
As the health care debate reached its climax a couple of weeks ago, conservatives were looking pretty popular. Poll numbers and approval ratings for the Democrats in Congress (and White House) were slipping with dangerous speed, while Republican talking points rang true with most of the public. However, then something shocking happened. After a year of political gridlock, unprecedented maneuvering, and intense public scrutiny, Obamacare became a reality, and all those Republican talking points dropped down to whispers in an empty hall.
Sure, while most Republicans seem to have exhausted all of their energy losing the healthcare battle, there have been some loud pundits talking about repealing the new healthcare laws, challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions, and how conservatives are going to take back the country come November. Unfortunately, the central problem seems to be going largely ignored: November is seven months away, and the public's attention span is painfully short.
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As ridiculous as the Democratic leadership sounded when they talked about how people will come to like the law once it's passed, their words are not necessarily wrong. The big changes and costs of the healthcare bills won't be readily apparent until after 2014, and by then, the public will no doubt have other things on its mind. Come November, when it is clear to anyone who can look up that the sky didn't fall the minute President Obama signed the comprehensive healthcare bill into law, people won't consider it the big deal they did last month.
Besides, the Democrats certainly have a gameplan. They proved their savviness when they actually won this battle. While everyone was busy talking about how horrible the Slaughter "deem-and-pass" Solution would be, the Democrats quietly came up with a way to pass the bill without it, all while making sure to keep the media guessing. Therefore, when Nancy Pelosi and President Obama were busy making more backroom deals to secure the necessary votes, they came out looking downright ethical because they didn't use the Slaughter Solution. The Republicans and conservative media fell for this bait-and-switch--hook, line, and sinker--and yet they continue to underestimate their opponents.
 | | A Slaughter Solution America could get behind |
It seems like now, the leadership on the right is sitting back--legs on the desk, hands behind their head--and waiting patiently for November, because as far as they're concerned, the election is already over. This is incredibly far from the truth, and the complacency being shown today by the minority party only makes matters worse.
And yes, we should all want a Republican victory in November. Once a single political party has all the power, this country is free to embrace its extremist tendencies. And as this is a primarily two-party country, this means we need to ensure that each party remains as strong as the other. The healthcare debacle only proves this, as does the abuse of power we saw under President Bush. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and thus we need checks and balances. While partisan competition is not one of the outlined balances of the Constitution, it is just as important as the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branch (a separation in great jeopardy, but I digress).
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The problem, I think, is in the echo chamber. It is now easier than ever to insulate yourself from opposing viewpoints. Hardcore conservatives read Drudge, listen to Rush Limbaugh, watch Fox News, and don't bother getting news from anywhere else. While I have no problem with media bias (in fact, I think it is completely and utterly unavoidable), I do have a problem with people who refuse to consider multiple points of view. In this case, it is causing a large segment of the population to believe that the Democrats are doomed in November, because they seem to think that only a crazy person would argue against Glenn Beck's clear skewering of the progressive agenda.
Out in the real world, however, moderates are being swayed by typical liberal slander (that is, conservatives are racist bigots), because Republicans aren't paying attention to the fact that the Democrats are executing a plan. If this trend continues until November, Republicans will be doomed, because complacent conservatives won't bother coming to the polls (because they think the Democrats have already lost) while the Democrats manage to snag a good chunk of the moderate voters who will show up on election day.
 | | Shhh... don't wake the Republicans |
And if the Democrats win, things will only get worse, because they only need to net a single Senate seat to get their supermajority back. Then they will be free to give themselves more power, enact more "comprehensive" laws, and spend this country into oblivion, just as surely as a Republican supermajority would. The stakes are high, the country is divided, and it is hard to overstate the potential ramifications of one political party completely defeating the other. Some crazies think that a civil war is the inevitable result of that trend, but like Nancy "pass-it-to-see-what's-in-it" Pelosi, they might be just crazy enough to be right.
But the fight has gone out of the Republican party. The tea party movement is being marginalized by unfair attacks (and its unwise and unabashed love of Sarah Palin), the Republican leadership is quietly sighing in a corner, and the Democrats are more fired up than ever. The election is going to be a tough one, and yet nobody on the right seems to be arming themselves for it.
The only way they can get out of this is to continue to oppose big government spending while consistently trying to find bipartisan solutions. One place where the Democrats are failing is in their promise to bring the country together, and it's a vulnerability that is easy to exploit as long as the Republicans don't act completely obstructionistic. It's too soon to use "repeal" as a rallying cry (after all, there's no foreseeable way to repeal Obamacare with Obama in the White House), but it's also too soon to assume that the public will be on your side in November.
-e. magill 3/30/2010
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