Thank You Mann....and Ornstein

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It is a topic I harp on.  But it is nice to see two political mavens, such as Mann and Ornstein, say that which shall not be said.   It is not both sides!

The Republican party has marched inexorably right.  The Democratic party has not.  This is a problem.

It is not symmetric.


If we want our system to change this incentive structure needs to be broken.  If you consistently reward obstruction.  Obstruction is what you will get.   If we want government to work, we need to force it to do so.  When candidates refuse to even entertain working with each other, they deserve to lose.  There are definitely some issues on which the parties fundamentally differ, and compromise may not be possible, but that should not be the status quo.   And we should not allow it to be so. 

I was asked recently what I say to my Republican/Conservative friends, when they complain about the dysfunction.  I have said many things, but I think this question Dr. Brad Delong posed to Mr. Mann and Mr. Ornstein should be endlessly repeated to any moderate or even (small) conservative:

Look. You two are expecting normal politics to rein in a Republican Party gone bonkers extreme. But it will not work. The press corps will continue to say "he said, she said, yadda yadda yadda" either because they are gutless cowards or because they are bought. In a world of low-information voters, the bonkers extremism and sheer total meanness of the Republican Party will not get through. The only way it could get through would be if moderate Republican barons were to announce that they had had enough and were crossing t'he aisle, and if they did so in a way that they brought their affinities with them. But I don't see Brent Scowcroft doing that, I don't see Colin Powell doing that, I don't see Greg Mankiw doing that, I don't see Marty Feldstein doing that, I don't see Gail Wilensky doing that, I don't see Bob Dole doing that, I don't see Jack Danforth doing that, I don't see Richard Lugar doing that--and I don't see you doing that, Mr. Ornstein. I don't see you calling for the defeat of every single Republican candidate this fall and every fall until the party comes back to reality.
And since all of you moderate Republicans are unwilling to take the only step that might fix the situation on your side, we have to take the only step open to us: We have to stop bringing a set of policy proposals and briefing papers to what the Republican Party has made a thermonuclear exchange. We have to oppose their noise, slime, and lie machine with a noise, disinfectant, and truth machine of our own--and at the same intensity.
That means you moderates need to pick a side and fasten your seat belts, rather than wringing your hands about how the Republicans are being so mean, and you wish they would be less so.”

The current Republican party needs to lose and they need to lose badly.   Anything less then that condemns us to consistent and ever escalating  political warfare. At a time when we can least afford to be mired in political paralysis.  That is the issue at hand, the Republican party is fighting a war and we need them to be governing.   If we want them to stop, we need to make them.  The Democratic Party is a center-left party, and right now, it is the only party concerned with middle of the road solutions.

-Cheers