{"id":9774,"date":"2010-03-21T17:13:14","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T00:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=9774"},"modified":"2010-03-21T17:13:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T00:13:14","slug":"david-frum-on-waterloo-conservative-leaders-let-us-to-abject-and-irreversible-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=9774","title":{"rendered":"David Frum on Waterloo: Conservative leaders "led us to abject and irreversible defeat.""},"content":{"rendered":"

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Conservative David Frum on the (apparent) passage of health care reform:<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama\u2019s Waterloo \u2013 just as healthcare was Clinton\u2019s in 1994.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right away, reading that paragraph, I was in shock. I cannot recall hearing another conservative admit this fairly obvious truth about the Republican strategy; that Republicans made a decision, regardless of the policy on offer, to not make any deals at all — even though Obama was clearly, transparently, flagrantly desperate for even a handful of Republican votes.<\/p>\n

And to be fair, it was a strategy that almost worked, because of Ted Kennedy’s untimely death, and because Democrats in Congress are fractious and easily panicked. It probably would have worked without Nancy Pelosi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What Frum doesn’t acknowledge is that conservatives actually got enormous concessions in the legislation<\/a>, even though they didn’t give it a single vote. Quoting Ezra:<\/p>\n

As Democrats came to realize that they couldn’t get Republican votes for the bill by adding policies that Republican senators supported, they began trimming their ambitions in order to keep their caucus together. As they came to realize that they couldn’t pass the legislation without their most conservative members, they gave their most conservative members a veto card over the bill’s provisions. The result is legislation that’s not only much more conservative and incremental than what past presidents have proposed, but is also much more conservative than the major health-care reforms — namely Medicare and Medicaid — that past presidents have passed. And Republicans got these substantive concessions not by making a deal, but by not making a deal. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back to Frum:<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, I am stunned.<\/p>\n

Not stunned by what Frum is saying — he’s absolutely correct, and everyone who pays attention has known that for months. There’s very little air between the “Obamacare” plan and what Republicans favored (and Democrats opposed) in the 1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No, I’m stunned to hear a conservative admit it. Conservatives mostly — either because they’re liars, or because they’re genuinely ignorant of health care policy 101 — have been claiming that the Health Care Reform bill is so extreme it’s socialist! It’s the end of freedom! It’s a takeover of the economy! It’s just like the UK! Hearing a conservative acknowledge reality feels like being an actress in a TV commercial<\/a> for York Peppermint Patties. It’s that refreshing.<\/p>\n

Frum brings another unwelcome dose of reality to conservatives:<\/p>\n

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the \u201cdoughnut hole\u201d and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents\u2019 insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there \u2013 would President Obama sign such a repeal?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Republicans will do well in November’s elections — they would have done so no matter what happened to this bill. The Democratic majority is too large to be sustained, especially in an off-year election. But if they run on promises of repeal! repeal! repeal!, then in 2011 they’ll have a bitterly disappointed base.<\/p>\n

So why didn’t<\/em> Republicans in Congress compromise?<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 more exactly \u2013 with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother? […]<\/p>\n

The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say \u2013 but what is equally true \u2013 is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed \u2013 if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office \u2013 Rush\u2019s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, I can’t see any way any of that will change.<\/p>\n

But I am thrilled that Health Care Reform — compromised as it is — is about to pass. I’ll go back to being pissed off at the Democrats soon enough, but right now, they done good. ((Unless, of course, they manage to drop the ball when they’re this close to victory. In which case the major egg on my face due to this post will be the very least of my concerns, believe me.)) To quote Frum one last time:<\/p>\n

Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservative David Frum on the (apparent) passage of health care reform: At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-zaniness-right-wingers-etc","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}