Showdowns are won by the side that cares the least (about the fallout). The precedent of who flinches first has been reinforced. I'm not sure the republicans have the backbone, morale, or conviction to try it again now that it's been shown the democrats are willing to ride the train all the way over the cliff if that's what it takes to force their ideology.
I guess the upshot for the Republicans is that no one's going to care about this by November 2014, so their careers aren't in the toilet. If only the Tea Party would vanish. I think one of the difficulties for the Republicans in this was that Obama didn't want to negotiate, but they couldn't get their own numbers straight because they have this psychotic batch eating away at their side of the political spectrum whom they're forced to cater to if they want any solidarity. So they had to play it hard with "get rid of ACA" or else keep to themselves.
what the flying fuck planet do you live on
The Tea Party is the only part of the republican voting demographic with any enthusiasm behind them. The losses of the 06, 08, 10 and 12 elections have all largely been because the most conservative parts of the electorate stayed home because they felt they had no candidate that represented them. The more the republican party tries to "moderate" by becoming diet democrats (IE, accepting the premise of an argument couched in the democrat perspective and saying they want to do the same thing just slower, in an attempt to appeal to the middle 20% who windsock between the parties), the more they've lost. Ted Cruz's campaign war chest just made $1.19 million, and Heritage Action tripled its funding goal. If the establishment republicans keep trying to push to the center, it will hasten the end of their party.
Government controlled and sponsored universal healthcare is... moderate?
You guys do NOT have "20% who windsock between the parties" by any stretch of the imagination.
Oh, I agree, it's just the line parroted by the media every time an election rolls around. They say that 40% of the country always goes republican, and 40% always goes democrat, and it's whoever woos the vaunted, erudite, discerning 20% of "independents"/"moderates" who wins the election. It's all complete hokum, of course, largely designed to encourage the self-destructive properties of the republican party to abandon their base (when the number of voters who self-identify as conservative is the highest it's been since the 50s) in favor of chasing mythological undecideds who, truth told, inevitably always break for the touchy-feely nonsense of the democrats anyway and just pretend to be undecided so as to convince themselves and others that they're smarter than everybody else. Republicans win more elections when they go hard right, and walk the walk once in office. That's why they lost in 06 - their base was tired of Bush era big-government republicans.
I think a better question is if the republicans will negotiate in good faith.
That's not moderates, that's Ross Perot.
What Gas said, that's Perot. You know how people have said that if Perot hadn't ran, you would have had Bush Sr. twice? That graph supports that, as few Perot votes came from dems, but most from republicans. That graph is PRESIDENTIAL numbers, not country as a whole for candidates. I couldn't find that. If somebody can and post it, that'd be great.
My favorite thing about the Eek the Cat cartoons is they took place in an alternate reality where Ross Perot won the 1992 presidential election.
HAH! Good luck on that. Remember: 535 seats, and 469 can be up for election at any one time.
3) A continuing resolution does not count as a budget.
Most Congressmen are independently wealthy
You and I have different opinions on what "universal healthcare" means.
No ... I was 7.
I was also a child!No ... I was 7.
I was so little that my justification for liking Bill Clinton was "he hasn't had a turn yet, so it's only fair that he gets a turn as president."We do kind of operate as if it's still the age of imperialism.
Choose not to work? That's fairly insulting, not to mention presumptuous. Must be nice to have never had to worry about being unemployed.
