Your Lips Say No, But Your Eyes Say No

You really do have to admire Fred Barnes for the consistency and depth of his level of reality denial.

Improving the party's image is a worthy cause, but it isn't what Republicans ought to be emphasizing right now. They have a more important mission: to be the party of no. And not just a party that bucks Obama and Democrats on easy issues like releasing Gitmo terrorists in this country, but one committed to aggressive, attention-grabbing opposition to the entire Obama agenda.

Many Republicans recoil from being combative adversaries of a popular president. They shouldn't. Opposing Obama across-the-board on his sweeping domestic initiatives makes sense on substance and politics. His policies--on spending, taxes, health care, energy, intervention in the economy, etc.--would change the country in ways most Americans don't believe in. That's the substance. And a year or 18 months from now, after those policies have been picked apart and exposed and possibly defeated, the political momentum is likely to have shifted away from Obama and Democrats.

This scenario has occurred time and again. Why do you think Democrats won the House and Senate in 2006 and bolstered their majorities in 2008? It wasn't because they were more thoughtful, offered compelling alternatives, or had improved their brand. They won because they opposed unpopular policies of President Bush and exploited Republican scandals in Congress. They were highly partisan and not very nice about it.

If Republicans scan their history, they'll discover unbridled opposition to bad Democratic policies pays off. Those two factors, unattractive policies plus strong opposition, were responsible for the Republican landslides in 1938, 1946, 1966, 1980, and 1994. A similar blowout may be beyond the reach of Republicans in 2010, but stranger things have happened in electoral politics. They'll lose nothing by trying.

Ahh, Freddy Freddy Freddy. Come. Walk with me, talk with me.

There are so many things wrong with this, it's difficult to measure them all. Once again Fred is convinced Americans don't want a government solution to America's problems...but nearly thirty years of letting the "free markets" work has failed. Dubya made a point of deregulating everything he possibly could, and the result has been absolutely disastrous for the country. From the environment to food and drugs to toys and building materials, from levees and schools and mines to plants and factories, and industry after industry, where regulation and oversight -- or "government interference" as you call it -- was curtailed or eliminated, we got in return disaster after disaster.

At every turn, accountability was eliminated and those who failed were rewarded by the Bush administration as Americans suffered and were hurt and sometimes killed by lack of protections dismantled by an administration beholden to corporate interests.

Americans want government working for them again. You guys had your shot. You blew it. Now it's the other side's turn. Once again Fred Barnes is trapped in an alternate reality where liberals and Democrats cannot accomplish anything, all that ever happens is an occasional backlash against conservatism that liberals misinterpret and 1994 happens again and again.

Keep telling yourself that this is only a phase. Keep telling yourselves that the GOP has nothing to lose by opposing every facet of the Obama agenda as an obstructionist party. Keep telling yourselves that the Republicans have nothing to lose.