Pray for gridlock, Pareene style
by digby
Alex Pareene asks an important question: what do the so-called moderates really want, anyway? And I think he answers the question very well:
[W]hat three policy areas did Lanny Davis identify as “common ground” between the parties? Immigration reform, gun control and global warming. Three issues, that is, that effectively define the wildly different domestic policy priorities of the current Democratic and Republican parties.
Rich, moderate Republicans support immigration reform. The party itself does not, as George W. Bush learned. Gun control is “bipartisan” in the sense that a large number of Democrats share the entire Republican Party’s fanatical opposition to it. Republicans do not believe global warming is real, and even if they did they would not support any measures to halt it. (Though Davis simply brought up global warming to pimp nuclear power — did I mention who sponsored this little breakfast panel?)
[…]
The one topic all good centrists and moderates agree on is deficit reduction. Specifically, it has to be deficit reduction accomplished by cutting Social Security and Medicare. And that would be accomplished in 10 minutes if the GOP hadn’t decided that it made more sense to wish very hard for severe social insurance cuts than to actually pass the less-severe ones the Democratic president effectively offered to give them.
In other words I guess I am pro-gridlock, if it means people like David Brooks, Lanny Davis and Michael Steele don’t get their way.
You know I agree, and for the very same reasons.
.