America’s “bipartisan” delusion: How the White House learned to ignore Republicans

[w4rma]

If you had to pinpoint the moment this worldview began to crystallize, it would probably be around the first debt-ceiling showdown, in 2011, when Obama tried repeatedly and desperately to cut a budget deal with House Speaker John Boehner only to realize, eventually, that Boehner did not have the power to negotiate. The administration has now decided that in many cases, even adversarial bargaining fails because the Republican leadership is not capable of planning tactically. “You have to be careful not to presume a lot of strategy for this group,” Pfeiffer said. “I’ve always believed that the fundamental, driving strategic ethos of the Republican House leadership has been, What do we do to get through the next caucus or conference without getting yelled at? We should never assume they have a long game. We used to spend a lot of time thinking that maybe Boehner is saying this to get himself some more room. And it’s like, no, that’s not actually the case. Usually he’s just saying it because he just said it or it’s the easiest thing to solve his immediate problem.”

This analysis puts the administration at odds with the reading of American politics that still dominates much of Washington reporting. Many political journalists imagine that the basic tension for the White House lies between Obama’s liberal base and appealing to Americans at the center, who will be crucial for tipping elections.

Pfeiffer believes the dynamic is, in fact, the opposite: “The incentive structure moves from going after the diminishing middle to motivating the base.” Ever since Republicans took control of the House four years ago, attempts to court Republicans have mostly failed while simultaneously dividing Democratic voters. Obama’s most politically successful maneuvers, by contrast, have all been unilateral and liberal. “Whenever we contemplate bold progressive action,” Pfeiffer said, “whether that’s the president’s endorsement of marriage equality, or coming out strong on power-plant rules to reduce current pollution, on immigration, on net neutrality, you get a lot of hemming and hawing in advance about what this is going to mean: Is this going to alienate people? Is this going to hurt the president’s approval ratings? What will this mean in red states?” And yet this hesitation has always proved overblown: “There’s never been a time when we’ve taken progressive action and regretted it.”

This was deeply at odds with the lesson Bill Clinton and most of his aides (many of whom staffed Obama’s administration) had taken away from his presidency. But by the beginning of Obama’s second term, at least, the president seemed fully convinced.
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/10/americas_bipartisan_delusion_how_the_white_house_learned_to_ignore_republicans/

[BlueCaliDem]

1. Good! There's no negotiating with a group that's already made up their minds to dismantle.

The Neo-Confederates posing as Republicans in the House and Senate have zero inclination to govern in a government they loathe and have sworn to "drown in a bath tub". There's no reasoning with these people, so it's important that every single Democrat understand this, full embrace this, and strategize accordingly and keep moving this country forward while blocking where the Neo-Confederates want to take this country backwards. Otherwise, Democrats will come across as weak, as "appeasers", and as failures, and NO ONE, especially not in this country where competitiveness is nurtured from a very young age and where losers are loathed and seen as something detestable, respects losers.

[Demeter]

2. Slow Learners

I truly doubt the base hung around waiting...which is why Elizabeth Warren has such support.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Posted to for later

[Cal33]

4. The President should have known the NeoCons for what they really were, at the most, after one

year -- but he kept on trying, year after year. He wasted 5 good years.

[hollowdweller]

5. This is one of the best most spot on articles on this subject I have read.

I hope Hillary reads it and it should be required reading for all democrats.

I think Warren totally gets it, and like the article says Obama now gets it but I'm not sure most dems or the media do. By trying to reach across they are unwittingly making it even harder.

[apnu]

6. Republicans haven't had a long game for 30 years.

Trickle-down Economics proves my point. Since Reagan, the Republican Party has been about themselves in that exact moment an nothing else is considered. Every single one of their policies displays this thinking.

For example: They all loved the PATRIOT ACT until it bit them in the ass. Now they scream about government privacy invasion and Big Brother.

Republicans have few operational brain cells. The few they have left seem to be concerned about where they can get food, sex or money.

[myrna minx]

7. K&R nt