What is it that the Democrats do not understand about Negotiating 101? Peter Daou states it succinctly how the Republicans have dominated the debate and why the Democrats fail so miserably
There is a simple formula for rightwing dominance of our national debate, even when Democrats are in charge: move the conversation as extreme right as possible, then compromise toward the far right. It’s negotiation 101.
The Democrats just don’t get it.
House Minority Leader, John Boehner will call for the resignations of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House Economic Advisor, Larry Summers. While I can’t disagree with him, since I thought the appointment of these two was wrong from the start, Boehner is doing it for all the wrong reasons because everything that Geithner and Summers have done so far is almost exactly what the Republicans would have done were they in power, continuing the banking and financial industry bail outs, watering down Financial regulation and cutting the stimulus bill to making it ineffective in creating jobs. It’s almost like these two are “moles” for the Republicans but Boehner is making them the starting point of the conversation. While the media mentions that Boehner supports the renewal of the Bush tax cuts to “to sparking job growth”, they failed to mention that those cuts have been in effect for the last 10 years and have failed to stimulate the economy or create jobs. The Democrats need to hammer that home, instead they waffle
It is no wonder, as Daou continues to point out,
it matters not one iota if Obama is a progressive at heart. What matters is that Democrats run away from the left like it’s the plague while Republican run to the right like it’s nirvana. The net effect is that the media end up reporting far right positions as though they were mainstream and reporting liberal positions as thought they were heinous aberrations. And you wonder why America is veering off the rails?
The left can’t push that pesky Overton Window to the middle so long as they continue to muddle the negotiations and allow, as David Waldman called Boehner, a “Stopped Clockwork Orange”, to dominate the bargaining table.
h/t Corrente
Recent Comments