Many have pointed out that the GOP tactics are suicidal and highly ineffective. Sumner admits they are though he wished they worked.
"I agree that the debt ceiling brinksmanship is ineffective (unless Obama is stupider than he looks.) As far as the government shutdown, I’m dubious it will work. It seems to me that Obama has the upper hand, and little reason to negotiate. His only chance of passing the legislation he supports is if he takes the House in 2014. That’s really tough to do in the 6th year of a Presidency. His only hope for doing so is if the GOP shuts down the government for a very long period of time."
"Morgan I’m still skeptical of the GOP position. They seem to be in too weak of a position to win this. I hope I’m wrong."
Frum, however, has really done a great job putting together a list of all their losing tactics. As he rightly says a cardinal mistake of theirs is always to shoot for the moon-maximalist goals. Usually what they get is a faceful of asphalt.
I like that word because it aptly defines their strategy. There is an old saying 'Shoot for the Sun and you may get the Moon; shoot for the Moon and you may not get the starts', however, the GOP takes this too far. Their all or nothing strategy leaves them with nothing again and again.
"There’s a lot about Obamacare for a Republican not to like. But to demand Obamacare’s outright repeal (which is what “defunding” amounts to) barely 10 months after decisively losing an election in which Obamacare occupied a central place—well, that’s shooting for the moon. we’ve seen equivalent moon shots again and again since 2009. During the original Obamacare legislation, Republicans took the position: no, no, not one inch. During the election of 2012, Republicans were not content merely to replace one president with another. They also campaigned on the most radical platform the party since 1964. They wanted the biggest possible mandate. Instead they got whomped."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/08/seven-habits-of-highly-ineffective-political-parties-part-one.html
"I agree that the debt ceiling brinksmanship is ineffective (unless Obama is stupider than he looks.) As far as the government shutdown, I’m dubious it will work. It seems to me that Obama has the upper hand, and little reason to negotiate. His only chance of passing the legislation he supports is if he takes the House in 2014. That’s really tough to do in the 6th year of a Presidency. His only hope for doing so is if the GOP shuts down the government for a very long period of time."
"Morgan I’m still skeptical of the GOP position. They seem to be in too weak of a position to win this. I hope I’m wrong."
Frum, however, has really done a great job putting together a list of all their losing tactics. As he rightly says a cardinal mistake of theirs is always to shoot for the moon-maximalist goals. Usually what they get is a faceful of asphalt.
I like that word because it aptly defines their strategy. There is an old saying 'Shoot for the Sun and you may get the Moon; shoot for the Moon and you may not get the starts', however, the GOP takes this too far. Their all or nothing strategy leaves them with nothing again and again.
"There’s a lot about Obamacare for a Republican not to like. But to demand Obamacare’s outright repeal (which is what “defunding” amounts to) barely 10 months after decisively losing an election in which Obamacare occupied a central place—well, that’s shooting for the moon. we’ve seen equivalent moon shots again and again since 2009. During the original Obamacare legislation, Republicans took the position: no, no, not one inch. During the election of 2012, Republicans were not content merely to replace one president with another. They also campaigned on the most radical platform the party since 1964. They wanted the biggest possible mandate. Instead they got whomped."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/08/seven-habits-of-highly-ineffective-political-parties-part-one.html
In fact we see this same failed maximalist strategy employed again and again. A perfect example was the fiscal cliff where Boehner ended up with egg in his face after his 'Plan B' which called for a tax hike only on incomes about $1 million dollars was defeated soundly. While liberals like me where scornful of his offer in retrospect I recall that in 2011 Nancy Pelosi was offering the very same deal and at the time I thought it was a great offer and the fact that GOPers wouldn't take it was just more evidence of their perversity.
Had they for once taken yes for an answer they could have avoided a much worse outcome from their viewpoint. Frum also points to the folly of the wholly irrational hatred of the President and the apocalyptic terms it sees everything in.
"Republicans have insisted on maximal goals because they fear they face a truly apocalyptic moment: an irrevocable fork in the road, with one path leading to socialist tyranny, the other to the restoration of the constitutional republic. There sometimes are such moments in history of nations. This is not one. If the United States has remained a constitutional republic despite a government guarantee of health care for people over 65, it will remain a constitutional republic with a government guarantee of health care for people under 65. Obamacare will cost money the country doesn’t have, and that poses a serious fiscal problem. But it’s not as serious a fiscal problem as is posed by the existing programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which cover the people it costs most to cover. It’s not a problem so serious as to justify panic."
The fact is that if they had set more modest goals in how to reform Obamacare they may well have had some material impact. As it is they will get nothing. When they declare My Way or the Highway, most are more and more choosing the highway than having to deal with them at all.
He mentions another 'secrets' of highly ineffective political parties-and the GOP really has been very ineffective in this recent cycle-that can be dated back to Clinton's 1992 rout of the senior Bush-an absolutely out of all proportion vituperative loathing of the President-Frum admits that his race at least doesn't hurt whether or not it's the only factor; it may not be the only but I think it's tough to overrate it-and how this hardly enables them to set rational goals.
Everything they do just further illustrates that this is not a party that belongs anywhere near the wheels of government and that it has a death wish that it won't be satisfied till it achieves it. I didn't think they'd learn too much in 2012 but I'm shocked how little they've actually learned nevertheless-a good case can be made that they've learned nothing; the one thing I thought they may have learnt was immigration reform but it seems that a sizable number of GOPers have decided that they don't need no Hispanic votes, they just need to maximize the White vote-Karl Rove among other conservatives have warned them that there aren't enough but as usual, only the worst choice in any situation gains traction in today's GOP. It's almost the Dilbert Principle for the GOP: in any difference of opinion among Republicans it will always be the worst one that will end up being seen as the 'real conservative' view.
He mentions another 'secrets' of highly ineffective political parties-and the GOP really has been very ineffective in this recent cycle-that can be dated back to Clinton's 1992 rout of the senior Bush-an absolutely out of all proportion vituperative loathing of the President-Frum admits that his race at least doesn't hurt whether or not it's the only factor; it may not be the only but I think it's tough to overrate it-and how this hardly enables them to set rational goals.
Everything they do just further illustrates that this is not a party that belongs anywhere near the wheels of government and that it has a death wish that it won't be satisfied till it achieves it. I didn't think they'd learn too much in 2012 but I'm shocked how little they've actually learned nevertheless-a good case can be made that they've learned nothing; the one thing I thought they may have learnt was immigration reform but it seems that a sizable number of GOPers have decided that they don't need no Hispanic votes, they just need to maximize the White vote-Karl Rove among other conservatives have warned them that there aren't enough but as usual, only the worst choice in any situation gains traction in today's GOP. It's almost the Dilbert Principle for the GOP: in any difference of opinion among Republicans it will always be the worst one that will end up being seen as the 'real conservative' view.
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