What If Obama Loses? Imagining The Consequences Of A GOP Victory

[SunsetDreams]

It’s a common complaint—we’ve certainly made it over the years—that too much political campaign coverage focuses on the horse race. The packed debate schedule in the current GOP nomination battle has put a bit more focus than usual on the substance of what the candidates are saying, which is good. But even so, most of this coverage has wound up being about whether a given policy position might help or hurt a candidate’s chances of winning. What’s most important has been left largely unexamined: if one of these candidates actually becomes president and advances his or her policies, what would be the consequences for the nation?

Part of the reason this question is seldom addressed is that it’s genuinely hard to do; it requires thinking three steps ahead and accounting for numerous variables. But there’s also a widespread assumption that extreme positions taken in the primaries will fade in the general election as candidates “move to the center,” and will disappear entirely once the serious business of governing begins. Surely President Newt Gingrich would not get rid of child labor laws. Surely President Perry would not seek to eliminate three cabinet departments.

We don’t think that this year, with this GOP, those assumptions are warranted. And so we asked a distinguished group of reporters and scholars to think through the hitherto unthinkable: What if one of these people actually wins?

Campaign Promises

What they say is how they’ll govern. By Jonathan Bernstein

The Tea Party

Picking the candidates and writing the agenda. By Dave Weigel

Congress

The good news is… no more gridlock. By Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein

The Courts

The conservative takeover will be complete. By Dahlia Lithwick

Foreign Affairs

The “more enemies, fewer friends” doctrine. By James Traub

The Environment

The end of the EPA as we know it. By David Roberts

Financial Regulation

Back to the good ol’ days of 2008. By Michael Konczal

Obamacare

It’s toast. By Harold Pollack


Here: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january_february_2012/features/the_courts034474.php?page=2

Just FYI: Maybe this would be of use for you when answering those "I'm not voting, I'm sitting out" cries.

[dennis4868]

1. A lot of DUers...

will be very happy!

[JoePhilly]

2. On the upside ... it won't happen.

And we get 4 years to laugh as they roll on the floor screaming.

[BlueCaliDem]

9. Heh.

[BlueCaliDem]

7. Sad but true.

But then are they really DUers? Considering their antagonistic posts for all things positive regarding Obama or Democrats, I seriously doubt it.

I've only been here since November 2004, but I can't recall such anger and frothing at the mouth hatred for a Democratic president as I've been seeing lately. They're not dumb. They know they're undermining PBO's support. And when I saw how many were actually thinking a President Paul was a good idea, I just dropped back in my chair with dropped jaw.

Constructive criticism is a good thing, but it's gotten to a point that all I see is destructive criticism and it's mind boggling.

On the other hand, should a Repub unseat our President Obama, there'd be enough anger out there to have people flush professional sites with memberships and $$s, wouldn't it?

Ask Michael Moore and how well he did under a Bush administration (Fahrenheit 9/11 - huge hit. The 2007 Sicko, not so much).

[nevergiveup]

3. The DU community understands the horrors of a total Tea Party Government and

as a consequence most here will be highly motivated to do what they can for Obama's re-election.

[Napoleon838]

4. Government Collapse

If Obama fails to be re-elected, there will be another president more embarrassing than Bush, and will run this country into the ground with their anti-abortion and anit-government garbage. Look what happned when the last Republicain was elected.

[struggle4progress]

5. Well, that ain't gonna happen if I can help it

and I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to keep it from happenin

[Number23]

6. The title of your post scared me so badly I can't even read the body of your OP

The mere THOUGHT of a GOP victory just makes me cold inside...

[BlueCaliDem]

8. Me, too.

If the kvetching professional left think it's hell on earth under a Democratic President - even one they refuse to support - then they're in for a rude and painful awakening under a Republican President.

What boggles the mind is, it's as if they don't see it.