Jim Fallows has been writing some fascinating stuff about the Republicans on his Atlantic blog–and I’d like to highlight, and comment on, two of his posts this week. First, there was this on the impossibility of bipartisanship–which led me to regret a missed opportunity I had when fencing with Bill O’Reilly earlier this week.
O’Reilly had said: why on earth didn’t Obama include medical malpractice reform in the health care bill. My response: he should have. But what I should have said was, “Bill, do you think that would have won him any Republican votes?” The way legislation works, when the system isn’t crippled by a party of nihilists, is: you trade concessions for votes till you reach a point where all involved are minimally unhappy. That can’t happen if Republican votes are unavailable under any circumstances.
The second relevant Fallows post involves the filibuster, which led me to an interesting thought:
When confronted with an intransigent and extreme bunch of Republicans in the 1990s, Bill Clinton snookered Newt Gingrich, allowing him to shut down the government by denying an extension of budget funding in December 1995. Gingrich demanded concessions (including medicare cuts, if I remember correctly). Clinton stood firm. The public sided with Clinton; the Republicans seemed both juvenile and recalcitrant.
So why not do the same now? Why not let the 41 Republicans filibuster–let them stop the Senate, dead in its tracks? The President could explain that the Republicans are standing in the way of the most basic tenet of a democracy: majority rules. It could be a “teachable moment” about the arcane workings of the Senate. He could do this on health care, and a variety of other issues–he could say, “Agree with it or not, let’s have a vote. Stop playing games with our democracy.”
Jujitsu is an essential political principle, too often overlooked: You roll with your opponent’s initiative, let him (or her) live with it. If the Republicans want to completely halt the U.S. Senate, perhaps they should be allowed to do that…and see how the public responds.