A Republican House – Good for Obama?
Posted on July 16, 2010 by Lou
Polling and pundits suggest that republicans may take back the house in November.
There’s a sentiment out there that this might be a good thing for democrats. That, in particular, it helps Obama’s reelection two years later.
We’ve been through this before. I’m searching my memory…
Some in the “new” left promoted the idea that the election of Nixon in ’68 would polarize the nation and bring on the revolution.
Sure.
There was some echo of that when Reagan won in ’80.
When congress flipped republican in ’94, so goes the narrative, Clinton found his foil and figured out how to govern up the middle. Four years later he was on trial in the senate.
In 2000, I was foolish enough to believe that we could certainly tolerate a one-term discredited Bush presidency (in the pre-blog era I could get away with such nonsense).
So now the idea is that once in charge, house republicans will show their true colors, making Obama look sensible and moderate.
Do you buy that?
Yes, I know, we didn’t want to be in this position. But we are.
And we’re past the blame game.
Here’s a long and thoughtful piece in The Nation which outlines why a democratic white house and congress didn’t add up to meaningful reform.
Eric Alterman’s article settled me down (for now) but I’ll need a lot more soothing before I’ll be able to accept and tolerate the idea of republican committee chairs and a republican speaker of the house (see photo above – Rep. John Boehner [R - OH]).
Comments (2)
Lou,
I’ve never subscribed to the idea that things have to get worse before they get better. Obama and the Democratic Congress have improved living and working conditions for most Americans, although not as much as we had hoped. Some of this is due to Obama’s reluctance to challenge the moderates in his own party or his calculation that he can’t pass progressive legislation when a handful of moderate Dems, esp. in key positions in the Senate, are too tied to busines, and when too many moderate Dems are from “swing” districts and fear supporting progressive legislation. Some of it is the fault of the Left for being too fragmented, timid, and disorganized, including the labor movement. But overall, things have gotten better under Obama and would get much worse if the Republicans controlled the House starting next January. I see no scenario where progressives or Obama benefit from John Boehner being Speaker and the Republicans chairing the House committees.
Completely agree with Peter Dreier, and couldn’t have said it better. Boehner as speaker, and a Senate that is also under the thumb of the Republicans, is a nightmare scenario and would, in effect, render Obama a lame-duck president. He has far too much work to do, we all have, before we can allow that to happen.
Rather than vote by remote, it’s more urgent now than ever that Democrats energize their base to get out to the polls in November. The Dems don’t have all the answers, but the right hasn’t been this scary since Newt Gingrich from whose “Contract on America” we have yet to recover.
It’s in our hands, and not those of the suits in D.C.