David Roberts lays out a case that Democrats need to take a page from Mitch McConnell's playbook. McConnell understands that it simply doesn't matter what Chuck Fucking Todd thinks. For too long, Democrats have tried to win the approval of gatekeepers and institutionalists. Roberts is right that those institutions are largely meaningless. Democrats should not care about what the punditry thinks about deficit spending when Democrats gain control of the White House and Senate again. They should not care, at this moment, about "obstructing" Republican efforts to bail out billionaires and large corporations. They should revel in those comparisons.
However, the Democrats are at a bit of a disadvantage in a way that Roberts does not acknowledge. McConnell's tactics work, because he leads a movement actively working to discredit the idea of competent, benevolent governance. McConnell (and really all Republicans) want Americans to distrust the idea that their government can provide important public goods. If Americans suddenly decided that social welfare programs and increased governmental health insurance were GOOD things, then their rationale for being in power is gone.
The problem is that American DO want a minimal level of governmental support, especially in a pandemic and global depression. It's the old joke of "a Democrat is a Republican who just lost his job." There are a lot of people who will blame the GOP for any bad outcomes. In fact, the people most likely to do so are the least political engaged and therefore the least partisan. So, taking a red line approach to the next stimulus bill and defying the GOP to obstruct is the right move to win in November. But they need to be wary of destroying the American people's faith in the ability of the government to do anything good.
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