Liberal Burblings

I linked to this article earlier but it’s worth singling it out. David Frum is a former Bush speechwriter who one might describe as a “moderate Republican” or, certainly, a Republican with his head screwed on. This article does a lot to explain the stupidity of the Republican position on health care. It also very intelligently points up the divergent interests of right wing politicians versus right wing radiohosts:

Conservatives and Republicans on Sunday suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster.

…we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.

Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

…There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

…When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

Related posts:

1. Knife-edge US Health Care Reform vote this weekend!
2. Obama is learning the lessons of Clinton's ill-fated 1994 health care reform attempts
3. Obama is learning the lessons of Clinton’s ill-fated 1994 health care reform attempts
4. Historic US vote for universal health care
5. US Senate passes health care bill