Archives for February 2, 2010

While the Republicans are still the minority party, they seem to have been able to exercise considerable power-at least in a negative sense.

On one hand, the Republicans have been cast as the party of “no.” Their main activities  have been to obstruct, criticize and widen political divisions. Of course, this makes selfish sense: while a Democrat success story would be good for the country, it would hurt the chances of the Republicans returning to power. While helping the Democrats fail would involve harming America, it would increase the chances that the Republicans can get back in control. While the Republicans are big on talk about unity and doing what is best for the country, this only seems to hold when they are in power. As such, one might suspect that they simply want folks to go along with them and do what they want.

On the other hand, the Republicans present themselves as fighting a heroic battle against the Democrats’ attempts to pass harmful laws. As such, they cast themselves as a noble opposition saying “no” not for their own selfish interests but for the good of America. Of course, the Republicans had their chance for eight years and that shows us the sort of good that Republicans intend to do.

I do suspect that some of the Republicans honestly believe that they are doing what is truly right and best for America. However, I suspect that most of them are mere politicians-they want was is best for themselves and the folks who have bought them. I think the same is true of the Democrats, of course.