Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on Yesterday's Defense Bill Debacle
If someone wanted a How-to-Quickly-Lose-Your-Massive-Political-Clout guide, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would certainly be the man to write it. His total inability to defeat Republican demagoguery on Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Dream Act, combined with his role in ObamaCare, has already made this Congress more lame duck than Daffy. "How ironic," notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest Forbes column, "that a president who got elected on the promise of bipartisan comity has produced nothing but partisan rancor. And his signature legislation that was supposed to save America's most vulnerable has begun by throwing them under the bus."
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Before I learned of the existence of reason, Forbes was the best magazine of which I was aware. Good to see that they continue to put out top-shelf stuff on occasion.
So Democrats fight for pro-libertarian positions on gay rights and immigration, Republicans resort to filibuster to defend their anti-libertarian positions — and libertarians turn the occasion into another excuse for Democrat bashing?
Well, they did call the Republican position “demagoguery”. And there’s no wrong time for bashing Democrats.
Though I find the dems handling of DADT and the DREAM act to be extremely cynical, as a former conservative, I find the knee-jerk defending of repubs and conservatives from ‘libertarians’ here just as annoying.
“as a former conservative” – MNG you’ve got to be a C-SPAN caller.
That’s MWG, not MNG.
So Democrats fight for pro-libertarian positions on gay rights and immigration
Wait. The DREAM Act isn’t a guest-worker bill; it’s a citizenship bill. It would make it easier for certain classes of aliens to become U.S. citizens.
I know that the Standard Libertarian Position(tm) is that the borders should be open to the flow of labor, but is it also the Standard Libertarian Position(tm) that U.S. citizenship requirements should be relaxed? If so, to what point? Does anyone who happens to be in America on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November get to vote? If so, given that we’ve opened the borders to absolutely anyone who wants to come here, how long before a veto-proof majority of Congress is made up of Chinese Communists?
The ugly, hardball tactics that Democrats deployed to shove this unpopular legislation down everyone’s throat have so poisoned the well on Capitol Hill that Democrats have no good will left to make strategic alliances on even reasonable legislation anymore.
This. I watched (some of) the ObamaCare passage festivities on C-SPAN. Truly nauseating.
Leave it to Shikha to blame the Democrats for not passing legislation that every single Republican voted against.
She appears to be blaming the one Democrat who ostensibly had the power to build the bridges necessary to pass the legislation and chose not to. Nor is she excusing the red team for getting it wrong by opposing it.
But GO TEAM BLUE or whatever gets your ignorant rocks off.
Some of us don’t side with TEAM BLUE or TEAM RED. Many libertarians reflexively root for TEAM RED, which annoys those of us who hate both teams.
Here we have a rare case where TEAM BLUE is unambiguously on the libertarian side of an issue, and TEAM RED is unambiguously on the anti-libertarian side — and many libertarians (eg, Dalmia and Moynihan in consecutive posts) still take it as an opportunity to chant TEAM BLUE SUCKS! TEAM BLUE SUCKS! That’s what I find annoying.
But, of course, the reason TEAM BLUE failed here to achieve its (ostensible) goal, is that TEAM BLUE truly does suck. It can’t play the game competently, and have therefore thrown away a chance to pass a bill we’d support.
Here we have a rare case where TEAM BLUE is unambiguously on the libertarian side of an issue, and TEAM RED is unambiguously on the anti-libertarian side
Again, as I asked above: what is the libertarian position on the ease with which aliens can become U.S. citizens?
I think they meant bipartisan comedy.
“How ironic,” notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest Forbes column, “that a president who got elected on the promise of bipartisan comity has produced nothing but partisan rancor
Yeah really how ironic. No one could have predicted that after getting their asses handed to them, the GOP’s whole M.O. would be “don’t let the Dems accomplish anything)
The GOP has been in lock step voting no on anything and everything — even after tons of concessions are made to them and after bills are made “bi-partisan” once many of their demands are met (including having much too small a stimulus and making over 30% of it useless tax cuts as the GOP demanded)
And somehow it’s Obama and the D’s fault for partisan rancor?
When one party tries to work out compromises (the D’s) and the other party is only interested in making sure the D’s can’t pass anything of substance and have nothing to show come election time, the blame lies at the feet of the obstructionists, not the party trying to deal in good faith with the minority
Fucking moron glibertarians. Nothing but useful idiots for the GOP.
Even when the D’s are pushing things you allegedly support you are more concerned with attacking them and ignoring the bullshit from the GOP.
Why exactly should anyone take you fucking morons seriously? You’re the most disingenuous fuckers around.
Let me ask you this, you nitwitted son of a monkey’s ass.
If the Dems really wanted to push for repeal of DADT, why did they not bring it, in its own bill, to the floor? It would easily pass.
They attach these things together to play political games. Both sides do it, the dems did it this time.
So you can’t be opposed to any bill? If the Republicans take back Congress and then push to immediately deport all illegal immigrants and invade Iran, and the Democrats oppose these measures they are obstructionists? Or are they only being partisans if the Republicans throw in something that they want (perhaps more useless stimulus to benefit teacher unions)?
If the party in power is trying to push a partisan agenda (e.g. Obamacare) and the minority partisan oppose it, it’s not the minority being partisan. Maybe the Republicans aren’t operating in bad faith, merely trying to sabotage the Democrats. Maybe they just don’t want the same things as the Democrats?
Note: Not claiming that I agree with the things that the Republicans want.
When one party tries to work out compromises (the D’s)
Assumes facts not in evidence.
No one could have predicted that after getting their asses handed to them, the GOP’s whole M.O. would be “don’t let the Dems accomplish anything)
There’s your problem right there: no Republican currently in either house of Congress got his ass handed to him. That’s what was so dumb about Obama’s “I won” comment. Yes, he sure did win, but so did the Representatives he was talking to.
It’s the job of those Senators and Representatives to represent the interests of the people who sent them there, not to acquiesce to the wishes of people outside their states and districts.
Now that TEAM BLUE has chimed in, perhaps a rebuttal from TEAM RED?