Posted on 12/19/2009 11:53:00 AM PST by goldstategop
When a fellow conservative tried to cheer me up this morning by assuring me that the Senate Democrats' victory on health care was going to be a Pyrrhic one, I realized I didn't remember much about Pyrrhus.
I went of course to Wikipedia. That fine reference work defines a Pyrrhic victory as "a victory with devastating cost to the victor." It also provides this quotation from Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus, describing the aftermath of the battle of Asculum in 279 BCE:
"The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war."
So: Pyrrhus's victory became Pyrrhic because the victorious party lost many of its supporters--but also because the opposition didn't abate in courage, was able to gain new recruits, and had the force and resolution to go on.
It's certainly true that the Obama administration and the Democrats have lost supporters over the past year. On February 24, when President Obama laid out his domestic agenda in his first speech to Congress, his approval/disapproval (in the Rasmussen tracking poll) was 60-39. By September 9, when he delivered his big health care speech to Congress, he was at 50-50. Today, as Harry Reid unveils his final text of the health care bill, Obama is at 45-53.
But I'd guess Obama is about to stop shedding supporters, at least for while. And it would be risky for Republicans simply to point to the public opinion polls and merely sit back and wait for good things to fall into their laps in 2010 or 2012.
So how should Republicans move forward?
1. Keep fighting on health care. Fight for the next few days in the Senate. Fight the conference report in January in the Senate and the House. Start trying to repeal the worst parts of the bill the moment it passes, if it does.
After all, never before has so unpopular a piece of major legislation been jammed through on a party-line vote. This week, Rasmussen showed 57% of voters nationwide saying that it would be better to pass no health care reform bill this year instead of passing the plan currently being considered by Congress, with only 34% favoring passing that bill. 54% of Americans now believe they will be worse off if reform passes, while just 25% believe they'll be better off. Making the 2010 elections a referendum on health care should work--if Republicans don't let up in the debate over the next year.
2. But don't fight only on health care. Republicans need to expand the battlefield. The rest of the past week's news--some Gitmo prisoners being released back to the battlefield, while others are to be brought to the U.S.; the Copenhagen farce and the EPA CO2 regulation; an Obama-appointed "safe schools czar" who's more interested in safe sex than safe schools--reminds us that there are many fronts for conservatives and Republicans to fight on, ranging from economic policy to social issues to national security. The criticism of the Obama administration needs to be broad-based, because you never know just what issue is going to take off, and because the opposition needs to knit together all those who object to the Europeanization of America.
3. And broaden the base for the fight. Many Republicans--especially Republican elected officials--fret that the Republican party remains unpopular. Don't worry about. It will take a while longer to repair the damage that's been done in recent years. So what if GOP has a favorable/unfavorable rating in this week's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of 28-43 percent? The good news is that, for the first time in more than two years, the Democratic party has a negative favorable/unfavorable rating, of 35 to 45 percent. The Democrats' decline is evening up the playing field between the two parties.
The most striking result in the NBC/Journal poll is that the Tea Party movement has a net-positive 41 percent to 23 percent score. The American public is in a populist/conservative/libertarian mood. Republicans need to adopt that mood, channel it into sound policies, and learn to trust the people, without worrying that they haven't all yet signed up to GOP orthodoxy.
So: Fight on with respect to health care. Fight on other fronts. And recruit new fighters. In a word: Fight.
Fight, fight and fight!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
That's BC, not BCE!
Nope. It is a complete and total victory for them. They might lose a few seats in 2010, but the GOP won't get enough seats to override a veto of any law that will repeal this.
And even if the GOP wins, it never rolled back any entitlements when it was in power anyway. What is to celebrate?
Screw you Kristol. Elections have consequences.
You are absolutely correct.
America died today. Amerika is assured
With many thanks to Sir Winston, “We must fight them in the town squares, we must fight them in town hall meetings, we must fight them in union halls, we must fight them on the radio, we must fight them in the blogs, we must fight them in social hall, we must fight them in the coffee shops..we must never surrender. And when we win and the country is renewed, people will then say, “THIS WAS THEIR FINEST HOUR”.
Next year I hope the GOP shuts the Senate down. Make every bill and every amendment be read on the floor or use whatever procedural maneuvers are available to bottle up legislation so the communists can’t do anymore damage to this country until next election comes around.
I agree with you but the vast majority of people on this forum do not. Let them stay angry, it will be excellent for the Conservative/Republican turnout in 2010 and 2012.
i recall that the catastrophic insurance entitlement was repealed some years ago — not sure who was in power, but the people rose up and Congress responded
Pyrrhus is usually quoted as having observed,
“Another such victory and I am undone.”
However, it is not overly optimistic to note that the American population as a whole is not undergoing a sea change to the left, and that the opposite may be true. The Obamanauts assume their hard left agenda is pre-approved by the majority which elected them.
Let’s work for success in 2010. After those elections, a truer determination of our fate can be deduced than is now possible.
BC and AD can’t be used anymore in liberal circles...they reference Christianity.
We all know how bad Christians are...soon the federal government will be in open legal warfare with those who follow the teachings of Christ.
See He is the Messiah...the guy in the White House just thinks he is.
Fight on all fronts.
Holder needs to be forced out. Stand up and demand his removal. The country does not need a pro-AlQaeda attorney general “prosecuting” our enemies.
Jennings likewise needs to be forced out. The last thing America needs is a pedophilic school czar making any decisions whatever about American kids.
Prepare to fight to put down the “carbon” embezzlement laws which are coming. Obama’s EPA has just given itself the right to regulate breathing. O and his EPA both need to be shut down. Shut down.
Prepare to go to war for your freedom of speech and of the press. O’s minions are going to try to take them from you, and if you don’t stand up they’ll do it. They will use the law to enslave you and they’ll do it. They do not fear you; that is the bottom line and that is what we have to change.
It will only take three small legal changes to slip the chains on us. Health care, which puts your life under the rule of a bureaucrat is one. Carbon law, which puts all of industry under bureaucratic rule is the second. “Fairness” and “Net neutrality” which puts your ability to communicate ideas under government control is the third. Click. With those three in place rule of law is replaced by dictatorship, but because it masquerades as law no one will resist it and we are finished.
I think that Palin’s posture is a good one. Make it clear to the Republicans that unless they abandon their practice of treating conservative as the enlisted and “moderates” like Romney as the officer class, they will be challenged in every primary. And as Limbaugh pointed, there are simply no Republican leaders in Washington who can be counted as conservatives.
We need an electoral Tsunami-win in 2010. We need more than 2/3 majority rule to overturn Obama’s vetoes. We need to launch a coup on the republican party, insert our agenda and our candidates, and create that Tsunami. Become a PCP in your local repub party. My patriot friend and myself did just that last week. First we win back our precincts, then our party, then the nation. Nevada did it. You and your state can too. It is the ONLY way. Start now!
We also need to take over the schools. We need to get on school boards, and we need to take out the unions. We need to return autonomous control back to each individual district and allow the people within the district to school their own with their own. Abolish the DOE!
An eti mian makhEn RhOmaious nikEsOmen, apoloumetha pantelOs
Before Pyrrhus, such victories were called Cadmean victories.
Yes, but it’s a big joke.
BC and BCE still reference the same date- the birth of Jesus as the measurement of time!
I always laugh when I read BCE... idiot libs.
The Bill hasn't been passed.
It has to go to reconcilation and there is where things really get interesting, getting a final Bill that will pass a revote in the House.
Looks like that's going to include the streets.
Will the military stand with the Nation and the Constitution...or the "government?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.