IT'S A TRAP!: This is all a tactic to get Democrats to blink first

[Shankapotomus]

Republicans are trying to create a trap where Democrats will be compelled to give in first by scaring them.

There are three possible responses and Republicans already know what their response will be if Democrats don't cave in first within a certain amount of time.

1.) Democrats blink first

If Democrats blink first (and Republicans are hoping they will), Republicans get what they want.

2.) Republicans blink first

I believe the Republican stratagem is that they already plan to blink at a chosen time but they are hoping Democrats will blink first.

3.) Nobody blinks

I believe this third scenario is unlikely, as Republicans are bluffing only to get Democrats to blink before they do.

There is only one response out of the three that can hurt Democrats and that's if they blink first.

But as long as we don't blink, Republicans are going to get blamed (and hopefully punished in 2014) if either of the remaining two responses plays out. Though I don't think Republicans would allow this shutdown to go much further.

So all Democrats have to do is not blink.

I'm sure this is all simplistically obvious stuff to many regulars here but I've also noticed there are some calling it "suicide" and "a death wish" and that "it doesn't make any sense." Republicans don't have a death wish They only want it to seem that way.

It's just a ploy to get Democrats to cave in first.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Um, no shit

[Shankapotomus]

5. Oh, good

I'm just relieved I'm not the only one who sees it.

Based on all the befuddlement in the media regarding Republican tactics surrounding this I was beginning to think people were oblivious it is a bluff.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. We've seen this movie before.

No way is it going to play any better for the GOP than it did in 1995-6. They're shooting themselves in the foot, I suspect most of them KNOW they're shooting themselves in the foot, but they're doing it anyway.

[Cha]

7. Or as one more sane republicon said.. "We're

shooting ourselves in the head". Can't remember who.. I saw in on DU earlier today.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

12. It's going to be worse for them this time. At least in '96, they could pretend they had a

...compelling case.

No way they can do that now. Sure, they're trying, but those attempts aren't swaying anyone outside of the already-swayed teabillies.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. That's what I think, too.

People are going to be even less patient with this crap this time around, and it didn't go over real well the first time.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. You are applying logic to

people who are out of their ever-lovin' minds.

The TP crowd will stuff nails in their eyes to prove they will never blink.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

4. Just saw Blumenthal on Bashir,

Senator from CT. Has the Prez (didn't see either of his talks) make the point that the funding levels in the CR already represent a compromise????
That point needs to be hammered without mercy.

[abelenkpe]

8. + 1000

[TDale313]

11. Absolutely!!!

And that's one of the sad things about this. We've already accepted the Sequester level funding as the new normal in order to try and keep the gov't open, and that still wasn't enough for these tea party whack jobs. They wanted to shut the government down. That was the point, not an unfortunate side effect. It shows they're tough and ideological enough, and in their minds proves that goverment is broken. Plus, forcing all the "takers" (themselves excluded, of course) to go cold turkey on their addiction to "handouts"? What could be sweeter. This'll hopefully backfire big time, but frankly to them, this makes sense, and it's what their constituents in their heavily gerrymandered districts think they want- until the pain of the shutdown affects them personally.

[yuiyoshida]

6. It is..

[Shankapotomus]

14. indeed

[Lifelong Dem]

9. Because of gerrymandering

The problem is Republicans in those areas are going to need Republican voters to vote them out. And those teabaggers will go to 2014's election to block ACA.

[brooklynite]

10. Calling this "a trap" gives the Republican too much credit...

Many of them would be happy to pass a clear CR today, if it was put up for a vote.

Others would like to vote for it, but are afraid of Primaries.

Boehner would be happy to put it up for a vote if he thought his Speakership would survive.

This isn't a clever way to trap the Democrats; its the Republicans finding themselves trapped by their internal disputes.