The Benefits of Intransigence
By SAM TANENHAUS, NYT
IF the government shutdown has shown us anything, it’s that the 80 or so House Republicans driving the crisis have emerged as the most unified force in politics: tightly organized, highly disciplined and ideologically firm.
But wasn’t their plan to make the budget a vehicle for defunding President Obama’s health care legislation doomed from the start? And even if this small band has the backing of voters in their safely drawn “red” districts, as well as Tea Party support, haven’t their unyielding tactics antagonized a majority of the public?
In fact, this minority faction — the “suicide caucus,” as the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer has called it — may be less shortsighted and self-defeating than it appears. At a time when so many officials in both parties still invoke the virtues of compromise and perpetuate the ideal of common ground on which “conservative pragmatists” can meet “moderate Democrats,” these more combative Republicans may be in the vanguard of a new post-consensus politics.
Consider the warnings of many, including some in the conservative establishment, that the shutdown will rebound against the party. As evidence they cite the shutdown of 1995. The winner then was President Bill Clinton, who deftly used the episode to right his wobbly presidency and then coasted to a second term in 1996.
(More here.)
IF the government shutdown has shown us anything, it’s that the 80 or so House Republicans driving the crisis have emerged as the most unified force in politics: tightly organized, highly disciplined and ideologically firm.
But wasn’t their plan to make the budget a vehicle for defunding President Obama’s health care legislation doomed from the start? And even if this small band has the backing of voters in their safely drawn “red” districts, as well as Tea Party support, haven’t their unyielding tactics antagonized a majority of the public?
In fact, this minority faction — the “suicide caucus,” as the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer has called it — may be less shortsighted and self-defeating than it appears. At a time when so many officials in both parties still invoke the virtues of compromise and perpetuate the ideal of common ground on which “conservative pragmatists” can meet “moderate Democrats,” these more combative Republicans may be in the vanguard of a new post-consensus politics.
Consider the warnings of many, including some in the conservative establishment, that the shutdown will rebound against the party. As evidence they cite the shutdown of 1995. The winner then was President Bill Clinton, who deftly used the episode to right his wobbly presidency and then coasted to a second term in 1996.
(More here.)
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