Jay Cost at the Weekly Standard:
Put simply, in the face of the most Republican Congress since the 1920s, President Obama has offered a defiantly liberal agenda. It has precisely zero chance of passage.
I happen to think there is a fair bit of common ground to be found between the two parties. Corporate tax reform and corporate welfare reduction come immediately to mind. On both these issues, congressional Republicans and the president could cut back government subsidies for the wealthy and well-connected.
All together now, kids: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
In my new book I call this, pursuing Jeffersonian ends (greater equality) with Jeffersonian means (less government).
I’d add to this list, trade and immigration. In theory, common ground can be found.
Well, yes, probably trade. But immigration? Was Cost in a coma the last two years, when a few Republicans took baby steps toward immigration reform, only to run screaming from the pitchfork-wielding mob that is their party's base? (Marco Rubio's current 2016 rank, according to the Real Clear Politics polling averages: ninth place.)
But little of that is going to happen because President Obama insists on trolling Republicans.
Yes, that's right: according to Cost, Republicans have been champing at the bit, desperate for the opportunity to work with Democrats, because nothing is more important to them than doing what's right for America, which is making democracy work via compromise -- but then Obama insulted them, so the hell with doing what's right for America, because Republicans' feelings trump America's needs. Yeah, what could be more Jeffersonian?
*****
And on a related subject, let's recall the words of Ron Fournier yesterday:
The pronouns: Count how many times Obama uses the words "I," "me," and "my." Compare that number to how often he says, "You," "we," "our." If the first number is greater than the second, Obama has failed.
Let's see: Of the president's State of the Union address and the official GOP response by Senator Joni Ernst, in which had more talk about "I" and "me"? Here, I'll give you a hint:
[Ernst's] populist conservatism was evident in nearly every passage and at times explicitly mentioned, including when she talked about the fast-food chain where she worked in her youth. “As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm. I worked construction with my dad. To save for college, I worked the morning biscuit line at Hardee’s,” she said. “We were raised to live simply, not to waste. It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning.
“You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry. But I was never embarrassed, because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet.”
Oh, but it was okay if her speech was all about her because that's non-elitist narcissism, which is the good kind.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
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