...if you define opposite by circumstance, not by quality of judgment
Too many people, morons and geniuses alike get caught in this trap. We have a habit of thinking in dichotomies, but if we're looking at something in term of whether it represents the mirror image of something we dislike, then we're committing a fallacy of logic.
It also hurts us when we oversimplify things, try to frame things merely in our dichotomies and our rivalries. The world is complicated, and so is doing the right thing, often enough. The world always exceeds our ability to grasp fully, so there are risks that pay off despite our worst criticisms, and otheres that fail despite our most fervent belief. The world isn't merely stuck between our ears, isn't limited by the boundaries of our imagination, or required to follow it to its furthest reach.
I'd say this. Don't start despairing. Nothing with this level of risk, or with the kind of thoughtless rivals we have will ever be easy. The deals will make us queasy, of course, since they'll by definition include things and validate things that Republicans like. Obama couldn't offer them stuff that didn't have concessions in it.
Now we have Kucinich and others talking trash about it. Well, if you liked it, it wouldn't be a compromise, it'd be the Republicans doing the unlikeliest thing in the world: instantly going to a position that absolutely favors us. Not going to happen that way, even if we come out of this very well. That may be where we end up, but that won't be where we start.
Every problem like this has its fourth-dimensional complications, its development over time. It's this development that we should note: Republicans who are smart enough to know the shit they're in (read: not Eric Cantor) are trembling at the prospect of being blamed for being the idiots who torch the economy.
My thinking, with the Tea Party-inspired rigidity, is that the Republican Position will continue to experience this kind of brittle failure. Why will this happen, in my opinion? Because the Tea Party is stuck on superficial promises and policy positions. They're not processing things further, they're just repeating what other people are saying and insisting that people do things their way.
Of course, there may not be a way to do things their way. The irony may be, though, that there's a way to do what they want to do that takes another direction. However, they have to be open to looking for it. You can't pursue novel options for getting what you want, if you've predisposed yourself to giving up.
It may not seem like it at the time, but there are often more ways to do things, than we imagine at the start. Our eyes have to remain open.
We also have to be more tentative in our assessments of things. When we look at the world, we're often missing huge chunks of information.
We don't know a lot about what's going on in those negotiations. We dont' know what's being presented as a proposal, or what's not. We have to be careful what we run with, because the other side seeks to frame things, too, and if we're too quick to accept a framing, simply because we've tied ourselves up in anxieties, we might leave the president in a weaker bargaining position.
Make no mistake: it's useful for us to slam the door on certain items, to force Obama to take a more liberal position. But we can slam the door on a position without having to attack Obama to do it. The message from that kind of negative response should be clear: your supporters don't like it, don't want it.
Remember, as I said a day or two before, we don't have to do anything to win, really, except get the debt ceiling passed. Instead of slumping in pre-emptive defeat, let's fight for what we want, and let the President, and the nation know that the sleeping giant of liberalism is awake and striding across the national landscape again.
No more self-pity. No more self-defeat, not even if Obama capitulates. If you rely on your leaders to give you your pride and motivation, then you were never that strong of a Democrat to begin with, you were only a poseur. Struggle for what you believe in, don't let others intimidate you or browbeat you into silence.