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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (17283)	4/24/2010 3:17:56 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

You complained of their tone and their lack of being constructive, and commented about how this made them look bad. That seems to be different than "the execution of this plan didn't get them the goal they wanted to get". It was more likely to work than just about anything else they could have done. I have never claimed that anything else would have worked better in terms of the goal, only that they looked bad. Actually, I have argued that the D's didn't really give them much in the way of options. But even if digging in was the only option, they still looked bad. Which affects their perception going forward when new issues are on the table. "Be constructive" seems to be very similar to "do something", with the difference being that you have to do something positive. Often the most positive thing you can do is nothing, or it can be to oppose change. I think they are two different notions. You can do nothing constructively or non-constructively. Picture someone hitting on someone else. If the second party isn't interested, he or she can "do nothing" either constructively or non-constructively, IOW take a pass gracefully or be a jerk. "Doing something" wasn't an option for the R's. They weren't in a position to bring a proposal to a vote even if they wanted to. So the only things they could feasibly bring about were 1) stopping what was up for a vote and 2) cultivating their image, which enables or disables their future potential. They failed in their effort at the former and they severely compromised the latter, IMO. I'm sure the populist partisans were impressed with their boyz but I don't think that extends far. Outside that cohort people may have appreciated that an effort was made to stop the legislation yet look so askance at the way it was done that they are reluctant to award power to those who made that effort.