Mississippi Man

by digby

Haley Barbour is a smart guy:

[Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour] believes that, given the policies being pushed by the Democrats, his party should embrace the mantle of opposition. Because Barbour chairs the Republican Governors Association, his advice is likely to carry considerable weight as his party heads into the midterm elections. In an interview with National Journal, Barbour warned fellow Republicans not to fall into a trap that they managed to avoid in 1994: turning the midterm election into a choice between parties rather than a referendum on the party in control…

House GOP leaders have asked Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California to draft an updated Contract With America. Barbour argues, though, that if Republicans release a national agenda early this year, they will just give Democrats something to attack. In 1994, the year the GOP seized the House and the Senate, House Republicans did not unveil the original Contract With America until autumn.

It is probably good politics for them. The country is polarized and has been for some time. They will retain their own followers no matter what happens and the independents and swing voters will move to whichever party is out of power as long as they are dissatisfied. It’s what they do.

But it’s more than that. The Republicans are one trick tax cut ponies unless they are willing to seriously put “entitlements” on the table. They’d love to, of course, but doing it at a time of great economic insecurity isn’t optimal. They’d rather use the opportunity to gin up deficit fever, hamstring the Democrats from doing anything which could depolarize the electorate and just roll into a majority by bashing Dems for being profligate spenders. It’s one of the great advantages of having 30 years of conservative propaganda to fall back on — unless the opposition makes a clear and compelling case that everything you’ve said has been proven wrong, it remains a comfortable default position among the large portion of the electorate that doesn’t pay attention to the details.

It’s also why they are running away from their latest “idea man” Paul “Call Me Galt” Ryan as fast as they can. They know that if people get a load of what the only ideas left on their plate really are, they’ll run screaming. So Barbour says ride it out and that’s what they are going to do.

.