Ezra Brings The Gloom

Nov. 3rd, 2010


With the election over, Ezra Klein sees it this way:


"From the perspective of actually getting anything done in the next two years, there was perhaps no worse outcome. Republicans don't fully control Congress, so they don't have enough power to be blamed for legislative outcomes. But Democrats don't control the House and they don't have a near-filibuster proof majority in the Senate, so they can't pass legislation. Republicans, in other words, are not left with the burden of governance, and Democrats are not left with the power to govern. Republicans don't have to be responsible, and Democrats can't do it for them."

Okay. It looks bad. But, I think Klein isn't taking into account the very real friction that is going to develop between the Tea Partiers and the old guard. The Republican establishment basically sold this current breed of conservative activists a bill of goods. They haven't got the product to which the purchasers feel very entitled. The problem is that they sold it to the kind of citizens who would likely raise Holy Hell at a grocery store over a 49 cent receipt discrepancy. 


There will be meaningful and consequential in-fighting.


In that lies a tremendous opportunity to redouble our message and hammer home those pesky things we call facts.