Tactical Paralysis
by digby
Conservatives are “blowing their chance” to derail the Democrats’ health-care reform, said Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic. Repeating a mistake “the left patented during the Bush administration,” the “organized right” has “discredited” itself by coming on too strong and crazy. Americans “remain anxious and confused” about the health-care overhaul, but the irate GOP activists who show up at town halls to exploit those fears are too “easy to mock.”
I’m not going to take the bait and thoroughly rebut the claim that the “the left” “patented” anything during the Bush years like what we’re seeing these Townhalls. I will point out that two of the most famous examples of what the Village decided was “going too far” were Cindy Sheehan’s camp in Crawford and the General Betrayus ad, neither of which were astroturf, violent or mendacious. I know that people thought they were completely outrageous acts of treason and all, but they really were not anything like these red-faced hysterics screaming incoherent gibberish at the top of their lungs about “losing their country” just six months into the new presidency — because of health reform. Please.
However, let’s assume for the sake of argument that “the left” and “the right” are exactly the same. Why do they believe this stuff isn’t effective? After all the Democrats now control the government. And as tristero pointed out below, the teabaggers are making progress:
The raucous protests at congressional town hall meetings have succeeded in fueling opposition to proposed health care bills among some Americans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — particularly the independents who tend to be at the center of political debates.
In a survey of 1,000 adults taken Tuesday, 34% say the sometimes heated protests at sessions held by members of Congress have made them more sympathetic to the protesters’ views; 21% say they are less sympathetic.
Independents by 2-1, 35%-16%, say they are more sympathetic to the protesters now.
Some liberals have the unfortunate habit of thinking that if only the country gets a good look at the wingnut sideshow they will reject it. It’s part of an ongoing presumption that people really, really want rationality and good ten point plans, (which is what people say they want…just before they jump into a cauldron of CW and crazy.) I honestly don’t know where they get their optimism. Our culture is awash in violence and ritual humiliation. A hell of a lot of people must like this stuff.
It’s pretty to think that there’s a silent majority out there who will rise up and say “enough.” But if they exist, I’m pretty sure they thought they did that in the last election. And this is what they get.
The conservatives in this country have no compunction about paralyzing the normal operations of the government, particularly when it is in the hands of what they perceive to be an illegitimate president. (And no Democrat can be legitimate, by definition.) We’re watching them do it as we speak.
This is not to say that they are fomenting a real revolution. The most likely scenario is that they will just succeed in giving the timorous, compromised Democrats an excuse not to follow through, everyone will blame crazy liberals for being too ambitious and the villagers can sleep like babies knowing that they’ve saved their town once again.
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