Seriously, since the Democrats are going to try to do everything that the GOP suggested anyway, why did they even bother shutting down the government in the first place?
Reminder: Delaying the individual mandate one year was an offer on the table to avert/end October’s government shutdown.
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) December 20, 2013
I don’t want to be rude, here – but is this all just a, hrm, performance issue for the Democratic leadership? Did they not want to be seen as being politically impotent? – If so, my (somewhat detached) sympathies. I understand that such things can play merry havoc with one’s self-image.
Moe Lane
I’m sure self-image played a role, but I think it was mostly an article of faith. Progressives believe in the inevitability of Progress. They made the ritual incantations and gestures, then they sat back and waited for Progress to happen. And it didn’t.
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I think that’s why you see all the denial that there’s actually a problem among the juiceboxers. It’s not just that they’re protecting sleazebag politicians, it’s a genuine crisis of faith.
Much of liberalism must be taken on faith because there are so few examples of it working in the real world …
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Conservatism, on the other paw, can clearly be demonstrated as working in the real world, but is in conflict with the “everybody’s a special butterfly, nobody is evil” line of bull mommies and daddies are taught to feed their little menaces.
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Mew
The thing about functioning systems is that they are run by humans and thus have flaws in their implementation that can be attacked. Progressives love taking about the mote in the eyes of us Regressives.
I think you miss the point. One of the ongoing themes of the Obama regime is that opposition is illegitimate. A proposal put forward by the Republicans is automatically wrong, evil, totally unacceptable in every way — not because of the nature of the proposal, but because it was proposed by the opposition. The exact same thing, when put forward by the regime, is not only fine but mandatory, not because the proposal has changed but because it was put forward by the right people.
It’s a form of tribalism in action. It’s also very dangerous, because it’s part of a longer-term trend towards the creation of one of the necessary components of a totalitarian state — a scapegoat group on which all wrongs can be blamed.
People need to start pushing back on this, explicitly and hard, right now.
To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.