My thought for the day... Choose your victories carefully. - TopicsExpress



          

My thought for the day... Choose your victories carefully. It was pretty clear a bit ago, when conservatives were trying to salvage something of our health-care system, that popular opinion was against them. Some had chosen to press for relief to the train-wreck that is Obama-Care as a compromise to a needed Continuing Resolution. At that time, democrats decided to dig in their heals and refuse to even talk about compromise. It was a battering-ram--accusing conservatives, ad infinitum, of shutting down the government. It was a conflict they won. They enjoyed that victory and revelled in the resulting consternation and weeks of hand wringing within conservative ranks. Then came the heathcare.gov Web site roll-out disaster, which is still on-going, and millions of policy cancellations. Together these have driven leading Democrats to near panic mode as the presidents approval ratings tank and their loyal constituents, and even legislators, start to bolt. With even more trouble on the horizon, its pretty clear to anyone reading the tea leaves that the winds of fortune have become an approaching cold-front for the Left. In the midst of the chaos, Democrats in the Senate decided to pull the trigger on the so called Nuclear Option, which is to throw out decades of precedent and change the Senate rules to move various appointments forward on a simple majority. Historically that had required a 60 vote super-majority. This was done even though there was strong opposition by many Democrats to this very action during the previous administration, including Harry Reid and Barack Obama. A victory again? Perhaps if doing so moves forward the number of court appointments they desired--lifetime appointments that will affect the nature of the courts for years. Wisely, Democrats excluded Supreme Court appointments, which would clearly have been a much more dynamic shot across the bow of conservatives. Even still, the repercussions of pulling the trigger are already coming home to roost. Without a majority in the House, the Lefts victories in the Senate are likely to be offset by an inability to move any of their legislative agenda forward as conservatives, smarting from the Democrats strike at the very heart of the Senate rules, put a stop to any legislation they dont entirely approve. So where have these two victories landed liberals? With another Continuing Resolution on the near horizon (January), it would seem that discussions to come to an agreement before that date are going to be interesting, to say the least. Its now clear that the administration and Democratic leaders should have taken one of the earlier compromise offers to delay the heath care roll-out rather than dig-in and blame the other party. If they had, not only might they have avoided an apparent political suicide, but might still have an opportunity to move compromise legislation forward. The real downside of this for the Left is that this was mostly predictable and mostly due to a lack of respect and consideration, not only for their fellow legislators, but also for the American people. This agenda at any cost political strategy has always had real consequences, and forever will. You may remember my caution to the Left a while ago about the definition of the word compromise. It doesnt mean YOU agree to MY terms. It means you talk, negotiate, and come to some common ground. If you think negotiation is a process by which you batter your opposition into submission, you have a lot to learn--and its becoming clear that some Democrats havent learned. These recent victories will, in short order, feel very hollow to the Left. Its likely to be a long year for them to the mid-term elections and very much longer to November 2016.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:06:51 +0000

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