E.J. Dionne: What's holding the Democratic Party down

[kpete]

What's holding the Democratic Party down
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Thursday, February 18, 2010

....................

Economists agree that the stimulus worked to create jobs, but Senate moderates made it less effective by shrinking its size and including irrelevancies -- notably $70 billion to fix the alternative minimum tax -- that did little to create jobs. The moderates got their way because the stimulus needed 60 votes, an absurd standard now that we have an ideologically polarized, parliamentary-style party system. We can waste time mourning that development or we can recognize it and act accordingly.

On health care, months of delay in a futile quest for Republican support got the Democrats the worst of all worlds. The media gave them no credit for reaching out to the other side but did blame them for an ugly, gridlocked process.

The demands of moderate Democrats for concessions -- remember the politically lethal Nebraska payoff for Sen. Ben Nelson? -- made the process look even seamier. The bill's conservative opponents shrewdly focused on such side issues and on made-up issues such as the "death panels." Nobody wants to admit that on health care the moderates won all the big fights. Single-payer was out at the start. The public option died. A Medicare buy-in died. The number of Americans who would be covered shrank. The insurance companies kept their antitrust exemption. If a bill eventually becomes law -- as it must if the Democrats are not to look like a feckless, useless lot -- the final proposal will be much closer to the moderate Senate version than to the more progressive bill passed by the House.

And if the Republicans refuse to cooperate, this will not mean that the bill isn't moderate. It will mean only that Republicans refuse to vote for a moderate bill.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR2010021703506.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I'm impressed. EJ hit it this time.

[Romulox]

2. Dionne is just assisting with the good cop/bad cop frame; Obama never wanted a Public Option

let alone Single Payer. It's so insulting to anybody who remembers last week to pretend this President fought for anything other than the so-called "moderate" Senate scheme that he's going to have to "reluctantly" ("No. Don't. (yawn) Stop." - Gene Wilder from Willy Wonka) have to accept.

[OHdem10]

3. Please write Dionne and inform him there are no moderates

they Conservative Democrats. A bill which serves Business
Interest over the people's interest is a Right Wing Bill.--
even if produced by Democrats.

[closeupready]

6. Thank you. Was just going to say the same thing.

n/t

[Larkspur]

4. Yep, Obama and the Dems are losing the framing war

What did you expect from the Rahm Emmanual type Dem leadership, which rejected George Lakoff's framing philosophy.

The Republicans have been successfully framing Democrats negatively for over 30 years and have gotten away with it. But when Democrats, like Alan Grayson, strike back, the Repubs recoil and squeal like rats whose secret hideout has been unearthed. We need more Grayson's and less Rahm Emmanuals and Harry Reids.

[Romulox]

5. Triangulation implicitly grants credence to your opponents frames.

That's the entire point--to co-opt some of your opponents support by co-opting some of his ideology. How do you combat the "big government is evil!" frame when you open negotiations by insisting that private insurers are the only entities suitable to administer our health care system?

It's difficult, because you've ceded a massive amount of ideological ground before the debate began.