Party Before Country:

Why the GOP is losing the battle for America

There was a pundit expounding on television this morning…can’t remember who or on which network, but that really doesn’t matter. What does matter is what he said, and it was probably the most prescient and, for Democrats, most encouraging thing we’ve heard in a long time. Granted, it was only one person’s opinion…but it really struck home.

During a discussion about the long-awaited Health Care Reform bill that had finally been put forward by the Senate Finance Committee, talk turned to how the Republicans would react…and what their next move might be. This pundit said that we should expect more of the same kind of scare tactics and negativity the GOP has been trotting out since the Health Care Reform debate began, and that if he were a Democratic strategist, that’s exactly how he’d be hoping they would respond.

After thinking about his assessment for a moment, what he meant by it suddenly became quite clear…kind of like a light had just come on. Since Barack Obama took the oath of office in January, the Republicans have been of one mind in focusing on a single, self-destructive strategy… namely bringing this President down. They don’t care how, they just want to topple his administration…and like a drug addict, their obsession is slowly but inexorably consuming them.

What the GOP is doing…and has been effectively fixated on ever since the Democratic primary season ended last summer…is somehow returning their party to power. They have demonstrated consistently that they’re not concerned about the needs of the country, or the needs of the people who vote for them. Their only concern is their party…and how to restore it to what they believe is its rightful place atop the American political pyramid.

Obviously, to accomplish that they must first get rid of President Obama, so they’ve put the bullseye squarely on him. As a result, they seemingly spend all of their time either thinking up or giving credence to ever more spurious ways to discredit him and his administration… think Bill Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, birthers, death panels, socialized medicine, ACORN, government takeovers, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, they’re not spending any time coming up with alternatives to the ideas that the President and the Democrats are offering for things that are so critically important to the well being of this country and its citizens…things like meaningful Health Care Reform, financial recovery, and job creation. That’s why the Republicans have come to be regarded as ‘the party of no’…as in, no, we don’t and won’t agree with what you’re proposing…and no, we don’t have a better, or even another idea.

If they can’t somehow push through more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and they can’t figure out how to funnel more health care industry and financial services industry money into their PACs, then it’s all about destroying Barack Obama, all the time. They’re totally bereft of ideas and concern for the needs of this country and the majority of its people. Their only concern is for the well being of the GOP.

It doesn’t seem to have dawned on them that even though the approval ratings for the President and the Democrats have gone down…as they always do during the last half of every new President’s first year in office…Republican approval ratings have, for the most part, either declined along with them or remained stagnant. That’s what’s so unusual about the current climate in Washington…and why, if the Democrats aren’t encouraged, they should be. The GOP simply haven’t taken advantage of the normal change in the political tide.

So basically, as long as President Obama has thick skin…and it would appear thus far that that is indeed the case…the Republicans’ Obamacentric strategy is not going to work. In steadily increasing numbers people are beginning to see their obstructionist tactics for what they truly are…unproductive, self-centered nonsense. The party of me…the party of us…the party of no…they’ve been reaching out to the fringe for so long now that they appear to have moved in with them.

This doesn’t mean the President and the Democrats can coast…far from it. People aren’t exactly thrilled with them right now either. But as long as they continue to work towards a better America for all…proposing legislation that will ultimately benefit the entire country rather than just their corporate benefactors and the privileged few…people will see and understand that. And even if they occasionally take their eyes off the road ahead, they’re more likely to be forgiven so long as the opposition is stuck in park or driving in reverse.

And so it goes.


SC