Method to the madness
Some time ago, shortly after President Bush had been sworn in for a second term, he vowed to use his popular vote mandate to…do something that he never talked about ever on the 2004 presidential campaign trail: privatizing social security. A number of his own supporters were rightfully horrified at the revelation that he was plotting to do so – though anyone who’s known the Republican Party since the mid-20th century shouldn’t have really been all that surprised.
The rather stupid plan – in which he’d somehow save social security by borrowing from it – was a calculated plan in which he thought House Democrats would be pressured by their constituents and the media to do anything to either negotiate it down, or come up with an alternative plan that voters wouldn’t trust. Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t offer an alternative to the Republican plan: either they leave social security alone or no deal. Despite all the doomcasting this brought, Democrats won out in the end, with Bush’s popularity cratering for the rest of his term and Republicans losing control of Congress for the first time in decades.
There’s a method to this madness, and we’re seeing a similar pattern as the news media recently called on Democrats to “do the right thing” by working to elect a Republican speaker for nothing in return. While Republicans are working to blame us, the GOP’s inability to find someone demented enough to fit as House speaker who will both cater to the craziest loudmouths in the party is becoming more apparent. Whoever the final nominee is, it’s going to be someone awful that will turn off moderate voters in swing districts Biden won in 2020, and it’s also going to be someone too awful that no House Democrat will want to be associated with. As we watch the GOP fall apart in real time, let’s take this time to remind voters that this is a party that cannot be trusted with power, then vote them out in 2024.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making