There was a satirical headline floating around after the Scott Brown victory which read: “Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate”. I think that sums up nicely the position the Democrats have put themselves in regarding healthcare reform. Liberals may blame Republicans for obstructionism but there is a valid argument for the minority taking an oppositional stance when the legislation in question is something they fundamentally disagree with.
Flip the tables: Imagine there are 59 or so Republicans in the Senate and they’re pushing for the privatization of Social Security – something Democrats fundamentally disagree with and want dead in its tracks. Should Democrats work with Republicans on this reform or should they threaten to filibuster? Would private retirement accounts be a palatable enough alternative to the current entitlement for Democrats to compromise, or would it better suit them and their constituency to simply obstruct?
Travel back a few years and you’ll notice that the Bush tax cuts were passed via reconciliation, because Democrats, rightly or wrongly, were obstructing those cuts. Now reconciliation may be the only way Democrats can push healthcare reform through the Senate. Nor is there anything wrong with that. Both sides do it, and both sides should do it, just like both sides should oppose legislation they fundamentally disagree with. That’s why we elect representatives – not just to do things, but also to oppose things that we disagree with. They represent us, and if we oppose healthcare reform, so should they. If we oppose going to war, so should they. If we oppose privatizing Social Security, so should they.
Nevertheless, Republicans are wrong to think that they’ve worked miracles by stalling or possibly killing the Senate healthcare reform bill, or that those efforts will translate into tangible gains in 2010 or 2012. Much of this is self-congratulatory spin-doctoring. In a down economy it is almost inevitable that people will begin grumbling about the incumbents. Whether that translates into significant gains for the opposition is another matter, and so far there is little reason to believe that Republicans have made serious gains in the public trust. Disappointment with Democrats and disappointment with Republicans are not mutually exclusive sentiments.
Politically, the Republican party and the conservative movement remain immature and overly hysterical. They have taken opposition beyond its necessary boundaries, devolving into rhetorical shenanigans and misrepresentations of their opponents. While this may rouse the base and stir up populist ire, it does very little to restore faith in independent voters that Republicans actually have a plan or the capacity to govern. It does nothing to bring about a return to good conservative ideas, no matter how much hot-air it expends on rather more generic ‘conservative principles.’
In the end, both parties should avoid the perils of over-confidence and self-delusion. Republicans should quit preemptively patting themselves on the back, and Democrats should avoid relying too much on the blame game. If healthcare reform fails its failure will be laid at the feet of the Democrats and especially at the feet of the president, no matter how hard he tries to distance himself from that legislation. Obama’s State of the Union speech has shown that when it comes to healthcare reform he’d rather just drop the ball and blame the Republicans than take a position of leadership and pass the damn bill. I can’t imagine a universe in which this won’t come back to haunt him later on, whether or not Republicans make an easy target.
P.S. – I personally don’t like the fact that Republicans have taken such an oppositional role in the healthcare debate. But that’s because I’m pro-reform. On issues that I am against (such as cap and trade) I heartily welcome staunch opposition. I imagine many on the left and right are this way, calling foul on ‘obstructionism’ when it is against a policy that we like and similarly supporting the noble opposition against policies with which we disagree.
6 responses so far
1 teabag // Jan 30, 2010 at 10:39 am
A really nice balanced intelligent post Mr Kain. More please.
Frum please drop Linnane and Geordiano and give this guy more column inches.
2 sinz54 // Jan 30, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Mr. Kain:
No, it goes deeper than that.
It goes to whether those policies end up enticing many Americans into joining the Left (or the Right) generally. It’s the classic argument from adverse consequences.
What the Left truly hated about Reagan was not his dealings with the USSR nor his tax cuts. What they hated most about Reagan was that by ending his presidency with the nation in better shape than it was under his predecessor, he made conservatism respectable in the eyes of millions of Americans–and made liberalism less respectable. That would make Americans more receptive to the arguments of conservatives in the future, and less receptive to the arguments of liberals.
As for Obama and health care reform, Mark Steyn summed up the fears of conservatives when he wrote that if health care reform succeeds, it will make all Americans dependent on a government program and make them less interested in capitalism.
In a sense, what conservatives fear is that health care reform will work–and Americans will conclude that liberals really can make life better for most Americans after all. If conservatives were confident that health care reform would become a mess, they would look forward to the day when Obama would be totally discredited in the eyes of the public.
I believe Mr. Steyn’s fears are groundless, if conservatives offer the right policies on other issues. After all, millions of seniors on Social Security and Medicare voted for Reagan. And single-payer in Canada didn’t keep Harper from becoming Prime Minister; nor is the NHS keeping Cameron from becoming Prime Minister of Britain.
3 balconesfault // Jan 30, 2010 at 1:15 pm
What the Left truly hated about Reagan was not his dealings with the USSR nor his tax cuts.
Nope – it was more his anti-environmentalist policies, his tacit support for right wing death squads in Central America, his support for anti-intellectualism, and his endless crusade against organized labor.
In a sense, what conservatives fear is that health care reform will work–and Americans will conclude that liberals really can make life better for most Americans after all.
Deeper than that – for the drivers of today’s Republican Party, it’s a fear that Americans will conclude once again that government really can make life better for most Americans after all.
This is, for example, why George HW Bush is so disliked by many Republicans – because the man clearly believed that government has a positive role in American life, even if he wasn’t completely in agreement with the Democrats as to where that line should be drawn.
This is why many Republicans give George W Bush a pass on his worst domestic failing – his mismanagement of the Federal Government. In part because they don’t believe the Federal Government CAN do the things Congress tasks it to do, and in part because they appreciated having termites unleashed on the foundation of government because that helped prove their point.
So you’re left with the simple equation (clearly espoused by some commentors here) that believing Government has a positive role in making Americans lives better is essentially liberal (or socialist, or communist, or statist, or whatever).
What the Republican Party has to decide, before they should ever be given the reins of power again, is whether they really believe Federal Government should play no role in making Americans lives better, or whether it should have such a role. Because until this particular bipolar neuroses within the party is dealt with, when the have the reins we can be assured we’ll end up creating new and greater economic disasters.
4 teabag // Jan 30, 2010 at 2:45 pm
“What the Left truly hated about Reagan was not his dealings with the USSR nor his tax cuts. ”
FAIL.
What the left hated about St Ronny was that he was a criminal. A drug dealing gun running criminal. If he was not already a basket case he should have been in jail.
5 kevin47 // Jan 30, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Sinz54,
To (generously) summarize the above, Liberals hate the caricature of Ronald Reagan moreso than his policies.
To this:
“As for Obama and health care reform, Mark Steyn summed up the fears of conservatives when he wrote that if health care reform succeeds, it will make all Americans dependent on a government program and make them less interested in capitalism.”
To which piece of his are you referring? I would think, at most, that Steyn would argue that the mere fact of American’s being dependent on a government program means that program has failed.
6 BoolaBoola // Jan 31, 2010 at 1:19 am
It will depend. If the Republicans DO kill the bill, then they will be blamed for it. If on the other hand the Dems fail by squabbling among themselves the Dems will be blamed.
Now that Brown has won, the Republicans can kill it by themselves–AND take the blame for it.
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