One of the more distressing consequences of the passage of the health care bill was one that nobody even noticed, or will most likely even care about. It won’t affect people’s lives at all, and it has absolutely nothing to do with health care.
A writer, David Frum, was shown the door at the conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
Frum published an article called “Waterloo,” where he took a badly-needed, honest, hard look at what led the Republicans to this point. If I could type it word for word, I would, because I love it, specifically this part:
“We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat...I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government.”
Amen brother, amen.
Then, Frum committed the truly unforgivable sin of criticizing the “real leader” of the conservative movement.
“When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail,” Frum wrote. “If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.”
A couple of days after publishing this, Frum was out of work. Seems it doesn’t pay to be right these days - and make no mistake, Frum was, and is, right.
I used to consider myself a liberal. Once upon a time, I was very active in the Democratic Party, to the point that I worked for both the party and for one of the more liberal members of the Texas Legislature (yes, they exist). However, as I got older, I began to realize not everyone could get a shiny new bike for Christmas, and the kid who did should not be made to feel bad because his parents could afford it. That same kid absolutely should not have to be made to share it, either. It’s his choice because it’s his bike.
As I reconciled my political past with my political present, part of me felt that I should be just as active with the GOP as I was with the Democrats. However, there’s something about today’s GOP that makes me feel uneasy and unsafe. I’m still very much a social liberal, and very much a moderate. I think we can all agree that the welcome mat is not out for moderates right now, on either side.
Taken all in all, the passage of health care reform was a massive failure of imagination on the part of conservatives. It was not enough to simply say no. It was not enough to call upon rage. It was not enough to do the legislative equivalent of stamping one’s feet and holding one’s breath until they get what they want. That not only looks bad - it is bad. You can talk all you want about November midterm payback, but I don’t see it happening. If a repeal is possible, and it probably isn’t, it won’t be for at least three to four years. By then, the GOP will have committed the same mistake liberals have seemingly stopped making - fighting yesterday’s battles tomorrow, when tomorrow’s battles could be fought today.
It’s time for the conservative movement to take a look at its own left flank, because there’s something of use there. I didn’t surrender my bleeding heart when I left the left behind. I just put it in its proper place. So have many others. Maybe the GOP could have outflanked the left on its own turf, and brought forth a better plan. We won’t know that because, as Frum pointed out, we followed the radicals and militants as they produced so much rhetorical fire, all the oxygen was sucked out of the room.
For the record, I don’t like the health care bill. I think if the big solution is just fining people who don’t have coverage, it’s a bad solution. It raises expectations to an unreal level, and contributes to a very unnerving trend of assuming the government will, and should, take care of all of us. That’s scary.
What’s scarier, however, is when smart people start getting the boot for simply making sense, and not toeing a frankly insane line in the sand.
Think about it. Did the GOP fail because it wasn’t angry enough? If not, then why go back and get even angrier? Will doing a dumb thing even harder next time make a positive difference? I want conservatives to win, but I want them to be smart about it. Sometimes being smart starts with a good, hard look in the mirror, to see what needs to stay, and what needs to go, no matter how comforting, entertaining or seemingly righteous it may be.
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One of the more distressing consequences of the passage of the health care bill was one that nobody even noticed, or will most likely even care about. It won’t affect people’s lives at all, and it has absolutely nothing to do with health care.
A writer, David Frum, was shown the door at the conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
Frum published an article called “Waterloo,” where he took a badly-needed, honest, hard look at what led the Republicans to this point. If I could type it word for word, I would, because I love it, specifically this part:
“We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat...I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government.”
Amen brother, amen.
Then, Frum committed the truly unforgivable sin of criticizing the “real leader” of the conservative movement.
“When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail,” Frum wrote. “If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.”
A couple of days after publishing this, Frum was out of work. Seems it doesn’t pay to be right these days - and make no mistake, Frum was, and is, right.
I used to consider myself a liberal. Once upon a time, I was very active in the Democratic Party, to the point that I worked for both the party and for one of the more liberal members of the Texas Legislature (yes, they exist). However, as I got older, I began to realize not everyone could get a shiny new bike for Christmas, and the kid who did should not be made to feel bad because his parents could afford it. That same kid absolutely should not have to be made to share it, either. It’s his choice because it’s his bike.
As I reconciled my political past with my political present, part of me felt that I should be just as active with the GOP as I was with the Democrats. However, there’s something about today’s GOP that makes me feel uneasy and unsafe. I’m still very much a social liberal, and very much a moderate. I think we can all agree that the welcome mat is not out for moderates right now, on either side.
Taken all in all, the passage of health care reform was a massive failure of imagination on the part of conservatives. It was not enough to simply say no. It was not enough to call upon rage. It was not enough to do the legislative equivalent of stamping one’s feet and holding one’s breath until they get what they want. That not only looks bad - it is bad. You can talk all you want about November midterm payback, but I don’t see it happening. If a repeal is possible, and it probably isn’t, it won’t be for at least three to four years. By then, the GOP will have committed the same mistake liberals have seemingly stopped making - fighting yesterday’s battles tomorrow, when tomorrow’s battles could be fought today.
It’s time for the conservative movement to take a look at its own left flank, because there’s something of use there. I didn’t surrender my bleeding heart when I left the left behind. I just put it in its proper place. So have many others. Maybe the GOP could have outflanked the left on its own turf, and brought forth a better plan. We won’t know that because, as Frum pointed out, we followed the radicals and militants as they produced so much rhetorical fire, all the oxygen was sucked out of the room.
For the record, I don’t like the health care bill. I think if the big solution is just fining people who don’t have coverage, it’s a bad solution. It raises expectations to an unreal level, and contributes to a very unnerving trend of assuming the government will, and should, take care of all of us. That’s scary.
What’s scarier, however, is when smart people start getting the boot for simply making sense, and not toeing a frankly insane line in the sand.
Think about it. Did the GOP fail because it wasn’t angry enough? If not, then why go back and get even angrier? Will doing a dumb thing even harder next time make a positive difference? I want conservatives to win, but I want them to be smart about it. Sometimes being smart starts with a good, hard look in the mirror, to see what needs to stay, and what needs to go, no matter how comforting, entertaining or seemingly righteous it may be.
