Posted on 12/09/2014 5:39:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Rush Limbaugh is a savvy guy who thinks Republican leaders are wrong to shun the idea of another government shutdown. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, he argued that the only important poll is the one held on Election Day. “[The GOP] won a landslide election ten months after that so-called shutdown . . . The essence of a poll is an election, and I’ve got two of them. And we would have won in 2012 if 4 million Republicans hadn’t stayed home.”
The belief that Romney would have won in 2012 if millions of Republicans hadn’t sat out the election is widely shared on the right, but it’s probably not true. Sean Trende, one of the country’s most careful election analysts, examined turnout data for Real Clear Politics. Counties that voted for Ross Perot tended to show a drop off in 2012, suggesting that a possible 6.5 million white voters were “missing” in 2012. But, as Trende observes, Romney would have had to win those voters by 90 percent to alter the outcome of the election, and considering that he won an average of 60 percent of white votes, that seems far-fetched.
Democrats plan for decades to achieve their goals. They aim to “fundamentally transform” the United States into a social-democratic nation like France, Germany, and well, Greece. When they gain majorities, they push their agenda to the breaking point, as they did in 2009 with Obamacare — a vote that cost them dearly in electoral defeats (and is now lamented by Senators Schumer and Harkin). Half of the senators who voted for Obamacare are no longer in office, and Democrats have lost control of both houses.
Republicans want to shrink government, revive the mediating institutions of society like family, community groups, and churches, improve national defense, and restore economic vitality by removing government-imposed burdens on small business. A key ambition, universally endorsed by Republicans, is repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Unlike Democrats though, Republicans are hampered by distrust of one another. Rush Limbaugh feeds this atmosphere of suspicion by suggesting that the reason Republican leaders are avoiding another shutdown is that they secretly support what Obama has done on immigration. “The Republicans want what Obama wants on immigration and they are using the government shutdown as an excuse to not stop [him].”
There is little doubt that the shutdown damaged the party’s standing. Polls showed that approval of the Republican party hit an all time low of 32 percent during the shutdown. Fifty-three percent of Americans blamed the GOP for the impasse, versus only 29 percent who blamed the president. Approval of Congress registered at 12 percent, with 85 percent disapproving and 70 percent strongly disapproving.
And for what? After three and a half weeks of predictable and predicted bad press, Republicans were forced to reopen the government having achieved nothing. The shutdown was a triumph of politics as tantrum. There could be no path to repealing Obamacare while Democrats controlled the Senate and Obama sat in the Oval Office.
There are two reasons that Republicans will always get blamed for government shutdowns. (1) The press will, without fail, report the shutdown as the Republicans’ doing and highlight the suffering of those whose checks fail to arrive, or whose businesses are harmed, or whatever; and (2) Democrats are the government party. Even low-information voters know that Democrats are for government, and Republicans more or less against it. Government shutdowns permit Republicans to be caricatured as irresponsible anarchists who cannot be trusted with power.
While it’s true that Republicans won in 2014 despite their 2013 foolishness, we have the enduring stability of the American electorate to credit for that. When dissatisfied, American voters don’t take to the streets, they simply vote for the other party. Considering Obama’s blunders, it’s possible that Republicans would have done even better last month if the shutdown had never happened. New Hampshire and Virginia were close.
Rather than impugning one another’s motives, the chief job of Republicans over the next two years will be to send reform bills to the president’s desk that broad majorities of the American people support. When he vetoes them, the issues will be squarely presented to the voters in 2016. That’s the only path to repealing Obamacare, reversing the president’s unconstitutional executive order, and generally getting the ship of state righted.
— Mona Charen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
Sadly she is right. Our corrupt, partisan media has convinced the mass of low-info sheeple that if the government were to shut down, grocery store shelves would be empty and planes would start falling out of the sky within half an hour.
“The Republicans want what Obama wants on immigration and they are using the government shutdown as an excuse to not stop [him].”
Show me otherwise.
“Three weeks of press treatment and the truth is recognized by all.”-Oswald Spengler
Mona is plain full of $h1+ on this one.
Whether anyone can: “Show you otherwise.” is irrelevant to the main issue of this article which is whether a shutdown would only damage the republicans without achieving any worthwhile purpose?
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What she said of the media is about the only thing she got right in the article. Romney lost because many stayed home. She said that Romney only got 60% of the white vote, while true the statistics she was referring to weren't about white voters but about Perot voters who were white. I'm pretty sure that Romney got pretty close to 100% of the Perot voters who voted.
I'm not at all sure Romney would have been a lot better for the country in some ways. Sure we would likely not have Obama care, sure we would be much better off internationally and militarily but we would have still been on a slide down to socialism. It is socialism that is tearing this country apart and the Manchurian candidate running the country.
Obama and Jarrett would love another shutdown. And some on this board would love to give it to them.
She totally side stepped (IMO) the issue of, “The Republicans want what Obama wants on immigration and they are using the government shutdown as an excuse to not stop [him].” Where’s the defense of that? Sorry, Rush is right on that point big time. Just look at what Boehner is doing right now in the House.
What good does kicking the can down the road do if the Republicans are only going to surrender anyway?
And if my aunt had testicles, she'd be my uncle.
The problem that the GOP-E doesn't want to hear is that people won't vote for their liberal republican for president.
Romney was unelectable.
/johnny
Count me as one! Can't do any[more] harm if they ain't doin' anything!
Rush is never wrong.
The None “shut down the government.” That’s one of the few things that I don’t have a problem with when it comes to Barry’s governance.
However, since “shutting down the government” seems to scare the Low/No Information Voters, it would be worthwhile for Republicans to have a leader who can speak coherently and forcefully enough to get the message across that if the None refuses to sign an appropriations bill, it is the None who is “shutting down the government.”
And, obviously, “a leader who can speak coherently and forcefully enough to get the message across” does not appear to include either John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.
Where is her proof the shutdowns hurt Repubs? Polls that include Dems? They should only care what their voters think and they want them to take a stand and so do the Indies.
Pray America is waking
Mona Charen is wrong about the government shutdown. And many other things.
/johnny
BS. Loudly and publicly pass compartmentalized funding bills. “Now, we are funding welfare...” etc. Let the Dems own the fallout from saying no to each one week after week.
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