The Policy of "NO" and How the Republicans Will Stop at Nothing to Win in 2012

Whether or not you believe the liberal hype that Republicans are unwilling to work with the President because he’s black, the fact remains that there policy of ‘no’ is perhaps one of the most brilliant political strategies of our time, and probably reflects not some deep seeded racism, but an uncompromising, no holds bar, determination to win in 2012. So powerful is the motivation to engage in a policy of ‘no’, that Republicans are willing to stake the entire financial and social future of our country on it; in fact the failure of congress and the blockading of anything remotely beneficial to our stagnating economy is the key part of the strategy.

Exactly when this strategy was conceived is hard to pin down, but most likely it came into being precisely when congress first met after Obama’s inauguration. John Boehner certainly came out kicking when he first suggested that the Republicans were going to refuse to work with Democrats on anything during the 4 years of the Obama Presidency. This attitude quickly coalesced into a mantra that Republicans began chanting as Obama worked to enact the central policies of his administration. Obama naively imagined he could bridge the political divide and create bipartisanship in a house divided, but this dream was quickly co-opted by Republicans who realized that a policy of non-compromise would force Obama to fail at his own game. Republicans said no. Republicans knew that if they were to give even an inch to the opposition, they would be perceived as collaborators in the Obama administration when they came up for re-election 2 or 4 years down the line.

There strategy was as simple as the old anti-drug campaign of the 80’s: “Just Say No.” The plan worked like this; allow Obama to announce sweeping changes and stir up support, then quickly come out and refuse to support the president, vote no on any legislation put forward by the democrats, and then wait. After the Republican sweep in 2010, their policy gained teeth in the form of a majority in the house, which enabled them to not only stand on the sidelines and vote no, but actually defeat and prevent any meaningful legislation from being passed. Looking at the record of congress over the past two years, this is exactly what they did, as this has been the worst congress on record for both bipartisan support and passing legislation. No wonder it’s facing a 6% approval rating. But the Republicans don’t care about that, they’re not worried about the perceptions of congress or whether or not the legislation put forward would actually help, there vision stay fixed on the Presidential race of 2012. By hijacking congress for two years and blocking nearly everything the President has put forward, they have finally put in place the final part of their plan, and it happens to be the most important feature: turn the tables and use all of Obama’s failures that they engineered over the past congress against him.

Suddenly, the fact that Obama couldn’t pass any legislation in the past two years is his fault. Obama’s failed bipartisanship is due to his unwillingness to compromise, when he is perhaps the most devoted conciliator of all time.  All of the partisan bickering over the past 2 years is all on him, regardless of the fact that Republicans were the one’s saying no. In 2011 the stalemate was so bad that they very nearly brought our country to financial ruin by there unwillingness to work with democrats on the debt ceiling debate. It was the Republican blockading that ultimately led to America’s credit rating being downgrade. Moody’s directly cited the Republicans as the reason for the move. Yet, again they managed to hoodwink the public into thinking that it was Obama and his ‘sublimated anger’ that prevented any compromise, and people believe them. In reality, Obama was so willing to compromise over this issue that he even put social security on the table for cuts, something unheard of for a democratic President. The reason he did that is because Obama really is a conciliator; he has always tried to work with the other side throughout his political career and truly believes that bipartisanship is a virtue. His naivety was his downfall however, and it took the truly monumental debt ceiling crisis for him to finally realize that no matter what he said or did, the other side was never going to cross the aisle. If they allowed Obama any success it would have been the demise of their overall goal; to create a failed Presidency and a failed economy.

This is the hallmark of the Republican strategy, and from a political point of view, it is brilliant; engineer a failed presidency by blocking any and everything that comes to a vote, and then turn around and blame the other side. Now Republicans can say things like, “He’s a failed leader,” “He has no vision for America,” etc, because he can’t get anything done. It’s reminiscent of a gangster “protection” racket; ‘see how badly your business is doing because you don’t have us protecting you?’ When ultimately it’s the gangsters themselves who are sabotaging the business in order to justify the protection money. It’s now a fait accompli, the shit has hit the fan because of the republican opposition and now they want to be the ‘good guys’ that will go in and clean up the house they destroyed. It’s pretty amazing that people have been so easily duped by this strategy, but then again it worked well for the mob for years. The Republicans are banking on the infinitesimally short attention span of Americans when it comes to politics. They know that people will blame the President for anything that went wrong over the past 4 years, regardless of their actions in congress. In our fast paced internet age, with 24 hour news cycles, they are betting that people will just accept anything that they say now and forget that they were the one’s who got us into this mess.

Republicans may be successful with the strategy, but unfortunately the loser is not just Obama and the democrats, but all Americans. The legislation that they have blocked and refused to comprise on, could have had a real and profound impact on American’s lives. The jobs bill for instance, would have gone a long way at helping to reverse the unemployment trend in this country. Republicans said no. If they let the unemployment rate drop below 8%, Obama may win the election. This may sound harsh, but that is exactly what the Republicans were worried about. They knew that the economy would again be the central theme of the 2012 election cycle, and therefore they couldn’t concede anything they may help it. Republicans may deny this till their blue in the face, and claim any number of invented excuses for not voting for legislation that would have helped the economy, but really there is no other explanation for their unwillingness to work together than that they were helping to stifle the economy so they could blame Obama. Preventing economic recovery under Obama was their central guiding platform over the last 4 years, with the understanding that if he failed at creating jobs he would certainly lose the election.

This is what politics is America has become: it’s not about using your power as a representative to help the people, it’s about helping the party. If that means preventing economic growth, nearly bankrupting our nation, and forcing the downgrade of our credit rating, well that’s just the price that’s paid in today’s election cycle. If this is an indication of things to come for our country, then we really are at the edge of a precipice, and if we fall in, our county will end up mired in partisan bickering and unable to even run the government. If the democrats take up the same tack if Obama loses the election, then we are in for another 4 years of nothing. Yet, historically at least the democrats have shown that they can and will cross the aisle, and don’t think of ‘compromise’ as a dirty word. During the Bush term, they facilitated many of his most conservative policies and many voted for both wars. Granted, it was after 9/11 and a feeling of patriotism swept through our country after this crisis, but what about the crisis of the Great Recession? Surely during a generational calamity such as the near collapse of our economy, our leaders could come together and tackle our problems? The Republicans said no. Their desire to retake the white house proved stronger than their patriotism. In a party of such self-avowed American lovers, it’s shocking that they would complicitly take part in the demise of our country. Regardless of your views of politics, surely the most important thing is that our country get back on it’s feet, lest we cease to be “the greatest country in the world.” Yet, that is precisely why they’ve engineered the failure; now it’s Obama’s fault, he wants to take down America a notch, he doesn’t believe in the American Dream, he’s an apologist. All false of course, but by letting the country’s world wide prestige drop down, they can then point at Obama and blame him and then claim he’s philosophically opposed to America being the greatest nation. That’s the icing on the cake for Republicans; not only can they point at his failed policy, but they can then claim that his failure is due to some apologetic philosophy that Obama has towards America, that somehow he’s really a socialist Europe-lover who wants nothing more than America to be a subordinate in the world’s stage.  

As political strategies go, the policy of ‘no’ would make Karl Rove proud, but is it worth it? After all is said and done, is this the way we want American politics to go? Is winning elections so important that our leaders are willing to let the country fail in order for them to win? Only the coming weeks will answer these questions, as it’s up to Americans now to decide who really has the country’s best interests in mind. If the hoodwinking works, and American chooses the Republicans, we will be in for many more years of oppositional politics because strategists will see that it worked and use it again and again. 

Links:
Republicans vs Straw Men
New Gop Plan same as old Gop Plan
Paul Ryan admits Marathon Lie
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/01/republicans_vs_straw_men/
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/02/new_gop_plan_same_as_old_gop_plan/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/01/paul-ryan-marathon-time_n_1848715.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular