Tweet
Among the general public recently there has been an increasing desire to see politicians compromise instead of sticking to their positions, but the Republican base still considers compromise a low priority. From Pew:
When Americans are asked whether they prefer elected officials who stick to their positions or those willing to compromise, the balance of opinion has shifted since early 2011. Currently, 50% say they like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with rather than elected officials who stick to their positions (44%). In March 2011, 54% said they preferred those who stick to their positions and 40% preferred those who compromise.
While a majority of Republicans say they prefer elected officials who stick to their positions (55% vs. 36%), the balance is flipped among Democrats and independents.
This is a large part of why the prospect of any major legislation in Obama’s second term is bleak.
Thanks to gerrymandering and natural sorting the number of actually competitive house is incredibly small. There are remarkably few House Republicans who are worried about their own general elections. The only major election worry for most House Republicans is a primary challenge, so they have a strong incentive to follow their base’s desire not to compromise.
The only possible political incentive for many House Republicans to take part in compromise is to help improve the overall Republican brand efforts to increase their chances of retaining the House or taking the Senate. Even that seems like it should be a minor concern in the short term.
The current design of the House districts provide a huge built-in advantage for Republicans. Combined with the fact that Democratic leaning groups are less likely to turnout a midterm election, it is very likely that the GOP will retain control of the House after the next election anyway.
9 Comments
Looks like in the Democratic Party we are all Broderites now.
There is I and there is the Other. There is one and there is 0. There is good and there is evil. So whaddaya mean, Compromise?
Compromise is for gray area seeing, Volvo driving, bree eating, girlie men and man-ie girls. In short, liberals.
Prediction: Obama and the members of the Democratic Party will continue to “reach out” to this pack of rabid jackals.
Compromise is a good thing. It is an emollient that allows some action even when people disagree on what needs to be done. It is only when it becomes an end in itself, only when it undermines democracy rather than facilitating it, that it becomes contemptible.
Elected officials are supposed to represent the people who elect them. If their constituents oppose cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and elect them on that basis, it is a betrayal of that trust, and the opposite of democracy, for a lawmaker to support such cuts. A “democracy” in which popular opinion is flouted by insider politicians for the sake of hanging on to power can only end in corruption and decay.
Right. There really needs to be a “fuck off!” added as a stand-alone response, or at least added to “both/neither/DK”.
GOP Base Still Doesn’t Value Compromise
It’s also wrong to expect to be able to bargain with terrorists. Obama had the Republican party marginalized and broken when he won after Bush in 2008. It was Obama’s choice to try to bargain. It would have been better to both America AND the Republican party if Obama had gone populist and further marginalized that Republican party, allowing it to reform itself into a more mainstream conservative party.
Obama’s look forward not back, and I will be in the middle no matter how far right the conservatives go has ended up resulting in a Democratic party President to the right of Ronald Reagan and Obama throwing away the American public’s mandate for real change and real reform. The resulting action and policy from Obama has been largely a continuation of Bush’s foreign and domestic policies and a disaster for America.
I don’t value compromise either. Majority rules.
Neither the Republican nor the Democratic base supports cuts to Social Security or Medicare. But the big money donor base of both legacy parties’ leadership — the corporations and PACs who call the shots — do, and that’s who they respond to.
This survey gives us the reason why the Democratic politicians have become spineless and gutless wimps willing to compromise and cave at the drop of a hat. The reason is the Democratic base itself. Since the Democratic base itself does not see the value in holding out for principles, why should the Democratic politicians?