Letter 2 America for November 16, 2012

Dear America,

Everyone is talking about this "fiscal cliff" as if it were a strictly adventitious circumstance...as if we got here by accident.  But the reality is that we are here as a consequence of a strategy that was initiated very early in the first Obama administration.  You will probably recall Mitch McConnell standing in the well of The Senate saying bluntly that the goal of the Republicans was to make sure that President Obama was a one term president, and they nearly succeeded.  And while the present turn of events was not necessarily on McConnell's mind, it is part of the natural course of events that he and his colleagues in the Republican conservative complex (Rcc) set in motion at that very moment.  This fiscal conundrum might not have been foreseen, but a conundrum of some kind with which to foist blame on The President was the goal all along, and this particular conundrum was engineered over a year ago...with malice aforethought.

Start from the proposition that the "super committee" concept was a natural derivative of McConnell's vow to nip the Obama liberal juggernaut in the bud.  Three years later--not coincidentally one year before the presidential election in which Obama would be seeking that dreaded second term--the Republicans seized on the need for a reauthorization of the federal government's ability to borrow, but it could have been anything pivotal, and it would certainly have been something even if the debt limit had not been about to be breached.  The siege of the Obama White House had already been underway for those three years, and one thing after another had gone wrong for The President.  After a brief period during which he had effective majorities in both houses to work with despite the perfidy of the Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives, he did get what passes as health care reform enacted, but in reality, it was just health insurance reform...a pale imitation of the universal health care that he wanted.  And there was Dodd-Frank, but the Republicans have managed to keep just about all of it from being effectuated.  Thus, despite these almost Pyrrhic victories, Mr. Obama's platform had been virtually eviscerated and the thwarting of his plan for the future turned into an exclamation point in the form of the November 2010 elections after the Rcc's declaration of war at the very beginning of it all.  But instead of confronting his adversaries with determination, The President began a period of capitulation and conciliation intended to demonstrate to the American people that he was reasonable.  He read the electoral repudiation of the Democratic congress as a repudiation of his mandate and he tried to snuggle up to the business-based axis of power that was arrayed against him in order to recapture public favor.  But that didn't work either as they continued to push, now flush with their subtle victories and the recent election, and the package of legislation coming out of the lame duck session of congress in the fall of 2010 completed the drubbing that McConnell had initiated and the election had brought to fruition.  The Republicans came out of it looking like they had compromised when all they really did was capitulate on things like "don't ask, don't tell" as part of a putative bargain with the Democrats when they would have had to give in on that point and several others that they conceded anyway due to popular demand.  As a result, President Obama looked not only weak, but like the cause of the stalemate that had plagued him all along.  Then, after another year of filibuster-enabled obstruction, the debt crisis came along and the Republicans fashioned another heads-I-win-tales-you-lose deal for him to sign, believing all along that even though it comprised both things they wanted and things they didn't, they would be able to reverse the latter while keeping the former in place.

Then, at last, President Obama developed some spine, and some spleen as well, and over the past year, he has done what he should have done all along...what strong presidents always do: he made his case to the American people.  And here we are, a new term looming for him and a new determination emanating from his White House as well.  The Republicans started the year wailing about the cuts in the defense budget that were part of the "sequestration"--the mandatory cuts that were triggered by their refusal to give an inch during the super committee meetings--on which they had insisted...and predictably so...but not at all about the other cuts to domestic programs.  They apparently thought that they were on the right side of the issues in election terms, but as it turns out they overplayed their hand and lost...a big loss considering that only a year ago the Democrats and The President were on the ropes and the economy is still in the tank in many ways.  If their stars were ever properly aligned, November 6 was the day, and they lost anyway.  So now, President Obama is the emboldened one, and he is digging in with the knowledge that there is no future election to win.  If Harry Reid of The Senate does what he has to on the first day of the new congressional session--change the rules so as to end the filibuster as a tool for the Republicans to use in stopping every initiative--and Nancy Pelosi, who has just announced her desire to continue to serve as leader of the Democrats, tells those few Blue Dogs left in The House that they either put on their boots for the cause or find someone else's party to be a part of, the Republican Procrustean condition for any deal of any kind--tax cuts for the rich--will be a thing of the past.  Let's just hope that the new era of Democratic fortitude stands the test of time...for two more months anyway.

Your friend,

Mike