The Great Republican Victory

Can we all agree that Republicans have had unprecedented success in preventing the Obama administration from achieving most, if not all, of its loftiest aspirations? Even before the 2010 midterms, Republicans were remarkably successful in getting health care reform watered down to a point that one might question whether it was worth the struggle in the first place. Since then...well, we all know what things have been like since then.

Now this all probably sounds a little obvious, but I want to make sure that I'm not making any unilateral presumptions. I don't know many Democrats who aren't frustrated by the repeated capitulations: the abandonment of the public option, the debt ceiling deal, the scheduling of an address to Congress, and so on. So I can only assume that Republicans are proud of their string of defensive victories. After all, John Boehner said he got 98% of what he wanted in the debt ceiling negotiations. It is hard to imagine greater success in blocking the agenda of any president. Right? So, congratulations to the GOP on defending their ideals and preventing President Obama from enacting any meaningful policy during his first term!

So, here's my question for Republicans: How exactly do you get off blaming Barack Obama for the continued stagnation of our economy? After all, none of his socialistic, job-killing ideology has actually been imposed upon the nation. You defended America and made sure of that, right? You've gotten almost everything you've wanted out of nearly every major legislative debate. Of the very few bills you haven't killed outright, you've successfully negotiated the terms down to a version that you might as well have written yourselves. Hell, you even forced a deficit reduction bill by holding the debt ceiling hostage. So how can it possibly be Barack Obama's fault that unemployment remains above nine percent while the economy flounders?

Even if you want to argue that we'd be better off if we passed a conservative's wet dream proposal for pulling us out of this crisis, you cannot rationally argue that liberal policy has failed - because you have successfully prevented the implementation of liberal policy. You have, at the very least, put us in neutral by preventing meaningful action of any sort. It could be argued, however, that you have effectively actuated what would have been the conservative response to this economic crisis, in which case it is your economic policy that has failed, not Barack Obama's. If John Boehner got 98% of what he wanted from a negotiation your party forced, it is hard to draw any other conclusion.

So the best you can do at this point - if you have any interest in remaining the least bit intellectually consistent - is to argue that Barack Obama should have allowed the GOP to guide the ship of state through this crisis, writing all of the pertinent legislation, cutting whatever taxes you deem necessary, eliminating any regulations you deem cumbersome, guiding us to the promised land of renewed economic prosperity. I'm sorry to tell you that government simply doesn't work that way - unless, of course, you want to allow Democrats to take the helm when you're in the White House. You cannot expect an elected Democrat to act like an orthodox Republican (unless he's Ben Nelson). As I often tell my four year old, you don't get whatever you want whenever you want it. Sorry.

In this case, not only have you not gotten whatever you wanted, you have ultimately guaranteed that no one has really gotten anything they wanted. While you may be proud of that, since you imagine liberal policy to be an unimaginable evil that America must be protected from (election results be damned), you have held us in this economic purgatory. Maybe Republican ideals would have improved the situation, but Republicans don't hold the White House or the Senate, so that's a null point. Maybe Democratic ideals would have improved the situation. Who knows? Better yet, maybe true negotiated compromise would have improved the situation. We'll never know. In any event, the one thing you cannot argue is that Barack Obama's policies have failed. What policies? His policy of not letting the GOP rule by fiat?

Again, congratulations on your remarkable political success these last few years. You have spared America the horror of liberal rule. The continued economic calamity being suffered by millions of Americans is a bright, shining testament to your steadfast courageousness.