Just Say No
Great news, via Politico: GOP At Risk of Becoming the Party of No.
For Republicans, a central question looms: Is saying no to Obama’s agenda the way to get voters to say yes to an already beleaguered GOP brand?
Despite two consecutive election thrashings, and despite Obama’s high approval ratings and their own low standing, Republicans have wagered that the return to the majority is paved by unwavering opposition to further spending, an audacious bet that won’t pay out for another 21 months.
If Republicans are right, the economy will remain in tatters and voters will recognize in 2010 that the recovery was delayed by profligate Democrats and their president.
If the GOP is wrong, however, and the economy begins to show signs of life, the resistance will be easily framed as reflexive obstructionism, the last gasp of an intellectually bankrupt party.
Politico apparently has bought the line that opposing profligate spending on a Democratic social agenda is a “do nothing” approach. But just as Obama said the other night about the economy, the issue of control of the White House, Congress, and the allegiance of a percent or two of the American electorate is also a long-term problem. It isn’t likely to be solved in Obama’s first month in office, though it’s been a great start, and the GOP has nothing to gain by going along with a tripling of the size of the deficit on behalf of volcanos, mice, lobsters and Obama’s campaign promises. Two years is a long time, four years is even longer.
Another Politico article notes the difficulty people have wrapping their heads about the vast sums now being tossed around, which may explain the public’s current tolerance for jacking up those numbers astronomically. That and maybe presidentially encouraged panic.
Short of a miraculous economic boom in the next two years, the tolerance for spending like drunken sailors … sorry, that’s unfair to drunken sailors … spending like Democrats with veto-proof control of the House, Senate and White House, is going to run dry as the cost of a massive deficit begins to settle in, along with the irony of trying to get out of a crisis of an inflated debt, money spent on things of no real value, by massively inflating debt on things of no real value. Efforts to blame any of this on Bush or any Republicans are going to wear a little thin.
Powerline cruelly steals a line from Obama, calls the historic deficit hike and taxes on the wealthy, ”The Beginning of the End,” as Obama feeds on the top half of his “top and bottom coalition.” As WSJ notes, “take everything they earn, it still won’t be enough.” NYT scribbler likes taxes as a GOP bull’s eye on Obama.
Then there’s the bottom half. Anyone got any ideas on appealing to them? Here’s one. By his own petard shall ye hoist him. House of Eratosthenes with the shortest non-SOTU commentary you’ll see anywhere, lets Obama say it all:
“There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that is the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay.”
Meanwhile, Reynolds points to what you can do, short-term. Remember, there’s nothing they fear more than Joes. And Ricks.
Speaking of Joe, Joyner takes issue with the Plumberization of the GOP. Riehl takes issue with Joyner.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:05 am Comments (2) on Thursday, February 26, 2009
2 Responses to “Just Say No”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
No Bailouts
No Stimulus
No Subsidies
No Pork
No Deficit
No Tax Hikes
No Bu11$#;+
Got any more Noes? Please add them, Oh yeah, one more:
Nobama
February 27th, 2009 at 12:33 am
No Earmarks