from E.J. Dionne Jr.:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/dec/01/gop-blames-obamas-america-first/Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Can we govern ourselves in the next two years? Do Republicans have any interest in accomplishments that might even indirectly benefit President Barack Obama?
Grounds for optimism are thin. The most striking aspect of Republican behavior since their party’s electoral triumph is a haughty assumption that the voters rejected everything Obama represents and that he ought to capitulate on all fronts right now. Anyone who fails to see things this way just doesn’t “get” it.
In pondering the GOP’s current posture, I was reminded of the famous speech that the late Jeane Kirkpatrick gave to the 1984 Republican National Convention in which she condemned the “San Francisco Democrats,” naming them after the very liberal and tolerant city in which they had just held their convention. Kirkpatrick’s refrain about the opposition, which brought uproarious approval from the crowd, went this way: “They always blame America first.”
I am afraid we are about to enter a two-year period in which the Beltway Republicans will always blame Obama’s America first — you know, the America that is not the “real” America, the America that happens to disagree with much of the conservative agenda, the America from which they want to “take back” the country, as if the rest of us represent an alien force. If Obama and his America are for something, even if that something is in the nation’s interest, it will be rejected out of hand.
In her speech, Kirkpatrick also noted: “The American people know that it’s dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause.” Yes, and it’s also dangerous to blame a man and an administration for terrible problems they did not cause . . .
read more:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/dec/01/gop-blames-obamas-america-first/
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