I’ve been thinking about Republican strategy the last few days, unsure about whether to say anything or not --- but as the health care reform bill moves ever closer to final passage in the US Senate, it is worth noting the all or nothing strategy the R’s have adopted. The R's are the most risk averse people you have ever met and that is why it surprises me they have rolled all the dice on a strategy aimed at total defeat of health care reform.
No compromise, no consolation prize, no joke. Only nothing will do.
I am surprised. And it is hard for these people to surprise me.
If they are right and the health care bill turns out to be the worst new law to pass in decades, the Democrats will pay the price next November and again in 2012. But if, as I suspect, the law will actually move health care reform forward in an overall positive way, the R’s will pay the price by being relegated to the back bench for a long, long time, having demonstrated fully and completely that they are not interested in solving problems, only in playing an obstinate role, a naysayer role. In other words, the opposite of what the founding fathers intended when they set up a republic that would send representatives to Washington to govern with an eye always toward making tomorrow a better day through the sheer force of new ideas if nothing else.
The R’s have clearly stated they have no new ideas and don’t intend to come up with any anytime soon. The substantive policy defeat the Democrats are about to hand the R's will last for decades.
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