The true sore losers
The Republican strategy pertaining to the sequester is simple but clear.
They are angry they lost the Presidency in 2012. This was an election they thought they were sure to win, and they still cannot believe they did not. They are in shock. However, it has occurred to many, including those who financed the GOP, a simple loss of a figurehead, read “Yes Man” such as Mitt Romney would have been and George W. Bush* certainly was, is not that big of a loss if the party simply proceeds with the plans it would have put in place had they won that election. So on to the pursuit of those goals.
Go after Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid anyway. Take down the government if necessary. Starve the Beast. Put the economy back into a recession through austerity measures, even if that means a huge loss of jobs to the American people. Negate the progress President Obama has made in nurturing a recovery from the Bush-caused recession, including creating an environment to slowly build job growth and the start of the shrinking of the debt.
Why? Staying on the offensive and blaming President Obama for an economy they put back into recession gives them a potent campaign theme for 2014 and an excellent practice run at 2016. If nothing else, over the long historical run, they can undermine his legacy.
Why else would people who are extremely wealthy step out of the darkness and publicly advocate for programs they know are unpopular with the voting public? We see and hear this as corporate bigwigs advocate for cuts in Social Security -- it is the darn FICA tax compromising their bottom line and making them look less profitable to shareholders. Who cares about the suffering poor and middle class when it is the shareholders who need to be impressed?
So pull out the playbook for the GOP under a Romney administration, and one can predict where we go from here. And if the chips fall where the economic experts say they will, blame the Democratic President -- and of course all of the legislators associated with him and his policies -- when 2014 washes in, but most certainly when 2016 is in sight.
And THEY called progressives angry over the theft of the 2000 election Sore Losers! Want to know what a sore loser really looks and sounds like? Just look and listen to that crowd on Boehner’s side of the House and the stragglers trailing behind McConnell in the Senate. But look and listen even more closely to the deep pockets that financed their seats and listen to the whispers about Republican governors re-apportioning how Electoral College votes will be allocated in the future, not by the popular vote in swing states, but by results from gerrymandered districts slanted toward a Republican advantage.
With this type of playbook at hand, why bother negotiating? Stay focused on the goal line and crush anything and anyone that gets in the way.
Maybe we should tell them to move on and get over it….