Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, October 4, 2013

She Blinded Me With (Political) Science

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/02/opinion/fitzpatrick-skocpol-shutdown-extremism/index.html?hpt=op_t1

In seeking to trump a lawful vote of both houses of Congress, a Supreme Court ruling and a reaffirming national presidential election, they tread on extremist ground. Their hubris is radical and nothing in modern American history provides a fair counterpart.

Here's a graph from Chait that I think is really important:

But the bigger problem here is that conservatives are not acknowledging the Democrats’ belief. It’s not a pose. They genuinely think, regardless of the merits of the ransom demand, they can’t give in, both for the national long-term interest and on moral principle. Conservatives are acting like the problem here is that they asked for a bit too much to begin with, and want to start haggling down the price. The price isn’t the issue. If the conservative goal is to create the illusion of winning something for the debt ceiling, then they’ll come back next time to win more, and Democrats can’t allow that.

Emphasis mine.

The new Democratic talking point should be about preserving the Constitutional order of the United States.  Forget arguing about conference committees, the ACA and National Parks.  This is about deciding whether government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth,

No comments: