One more time: The Republicans have no incentive to moderate
by digby
So theconservative majority on the D.C. Circuit Court panel seized the opportunity to strike down about half the Obamacare subsidies. Of course they did:
A federal appeals court panel in the District struck down a major part of the 2010 health-care law Tuesday, ruling that the tax subsidies that are central to the program may not be provided in at least half of the states.
The ruling, if upheld, could potentially be more damaging to the law than last month’s Supreme Court decision on contraceptives. The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with plaintiffs who argued that the language of the law barred the government from giving subsidies to people in states that chose not to set up their own insurance marketplaces. Twenty-seven states, most with Republican leaders who oppose the law, decided against setting up marketplaces, and another nine states partially opted out.
This is a purely technical glitch in the drafting language. If we had a normal, functioning government it wouldn’t even have made it to the courts, it would have been fixed with a voice vote and the president would have signed it the minute anyone became aware of it. But we don’t have a normal, functioning government so this issue is working its way through the court system and will end up before the Supremes, where the five man majority could bat their eyes and fatuously declare that this is a problem only the congress can fix, knowing all the while that we have a bunch of terrorists running the House who will never do it.
I don’t know if the Court is that irresponsible, but it looks as though we’re going to find out.
This is why I theorize that the Republicans don’t really need to win the presidency and have little reason to moderate. They don’t even need to win the Senate — it makes little difference if they do. With one gerrymandered House of congress willing to do whatever it takes and a hardcore ideological majority on the Supreme Court they can enact their agenda regardless of what the majority of this country desires. After all, what they really care about is making government dysfunctional. This furthers their political and ideological aims.
And while one might think they would like to have the presidency in order to control the Commander in Chief function, which they love, they don’t really need that either. The Deep State is always in control and neither party is going to do anything to upset it beyond the very outside margins. (Actually, I think the Cheney administration actually did try to change things — for the worse — and it scared them a little.) And anyway, the GOP enjoys carping from the outside, portraying the Democrats as feckless, effeminate fops who are unable to run the world’s only Superpower even as there are almost no real differences among them. It’s all good.
The Republican Party run by the modern conservative movement is the most effective and successful minority party in history. They fully exploit every flaw in our system for their own advantage and then skillfully demonize their opponents if they try to use the same techniques. They are well funded by billionaires with a strong interest in paralyzing democracy and have a bunch of followers whose worldview is organized around discontent and hatred of “the other” which makes a government system full of veto points a perfect vehicle for their agenda. Oh, and they revel in shamelessness which is their way of flexing their power and ensuring that everyone knows who’s really in charge. And everyone does.
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