An occasional topic of conversation with colleagues over the past couple years has been that it would be poetic justice if the Republicans paid at the polls for their refusal to work cooperatively, instead playing games of budget chicken and holding vital legislation hostage to their uncompromising demands. The legislation forming the looming financial cliff is but one example, their refusal to raise the debt ceiling last year threatening to shut down government is another. Our feeling was that only a landslide at the polls would convince Republicans that they had taken the wrong course.
Even if Florida eventually falls Obama's way I don't consider the outcome of the presidential election a landslide. When back in 1980 Reagan beat Carter 489 to 49, now that was a landslide, here's the map:
In contrast, yesterday's electoral outcome was no landslide:
And the popular vote, 50% to 49%, was extremely close, so it seemed to me that the next four years would bring yet more governmental stalemate. But that the Republicans lost ground in both the House and Senate was yet another factor, and so apparently some Republicans are beginning to take the hint. A couple articles in today's papers indicate that in at least some quarters Republicans are considering that perhaps a more moderate course could work better for them. I won't go into details, but here are links to a couple articles:
The Republicans apparently do sense that their stands on women's issues and on taxes on the rich have to be moderated, and they realize that the blame for the legislative stalemate is falling mostly on their shoulders. But they feel stymied by what they view as a necessary appeasement of the Christian far-right. And they know that white males are their foundation and that that base is diminishing as the Hispanic population becomes an increasing proportion of our population. They have no solutions at this time, but at least they're aware of these and other important issues.
24 years ago George Will wrote this of the Democrats:
"How many times does the electorate have to hit the Democrate Party across the bridge of the nose with a crowbar before the party gets the point? Remarkable beast, that party. Its nose breaks crowbars."
Throughout the Obama administration the Republican Party has seemed similarly irrationally stubborn, but hopefully they now get the point, for only when they do will the stalemate in Washington finally come to an end.
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Fix link.