SmithAntics

I wonder what’s more important to Obama: saving the country’s ass or making nice with Republicans? Because he can’t have both. There is no such thing as post-partisanship. Partisanship is a necessary feature of a democracy. Liberals and conservatives have fundamental disagreements on how to govern. There will be no great healing. Democrats have a sweeping mandate to tell Republicans to STFU. Yet the past eight years have demonstrated beyond a doubt that Democrats are a self-hating bunch, who fall over themselves to appease Republicans, despite the fact that these acts are never reciprocated. Obama has shown many signs that he is a part of that culture, and that worries me deeply, specifically because our entire national existence appears to be on the line. Saving the country requires massive liberal governmental action that is going to mightily piss off Republicans. If Obama tries to nuance this action with compromise and self-defeating and undeserved gestures of bi-partisanship, we are fucked. If he operates under the assumption that Rethugs are rooting for him, or have the country’s interest at heart, or do not want his presidency to fail miserably, we are fucked.