This isn't chess.
It's not checkers.
It is people's lives we are talking about.
The GOP is making their hostage taking nihilism the new normal. Republican threats amount to destroying the present if we don't allow them to destroy the future too. Averting that destruction of the present is only a full victory if you stop the GOP from pulling this bullshit again in the future too. The current Biden-McConnell deal does not do that. Allowing the GOP to continue to take hostage America's economy in exchange for crumbs isn't a full victory, it is a Pyrrhic victory, and even that is a stretch if you really want to insist that this is any kind of victory at all, so please don't insult my intelligence by telling me this is some high form of multi-dimensional chess beyond my understanding. And make no mistake, if Republicans can't win elections (and they can't) than they will be perfectly happy to play this war of attrition as long as Obama keeps letting them. How is that a victory?
The GOP will extract more demands in future hostage taking negotiations over the debt ceiling and the postponed sequestration deal two months from now. How can anyone who is not a Republican call that a good thing? You mean we get to go through this all over again? THAT is what you are calling a victory? In sparing the GOP the catastrophic consequences of their own extremism Obama is enabling them, and that is bad for the GOP and America. The GOP will never moderate itself if Obama keeps moving to the right. The GOP will never truly feel the pain of their electoral defeats if Obama keeps bailing them out whenever they get too close to sinking the ship for all of us because they hate the captain. Letting the GOP hold the economy of our nation hostage again isn't a win, it's the political equivalent of giving the kidnappers who stole your daughter some ransom money without getting your daughter back. Sure she is not hurt yet, but the bad guys still have her. What incentive does that strategy give the hostage takers to ever give you your daughter back? If that is what you want to call a victory be my guest, but don't piss on my leg during a drought and tell me I should be praising the Gods for sending us rain.
Slightly more venting below the fold
A deal that makes tax cuts for the rich permanent while extending cuts for the poor and working class on a temporary basis is a bit lopsided, don't ya think? A deal that shifts more of the tax burden on the poor and working class but not as much as we might have otherwise would have been a good deal for Congressional Democrats if John Boehner was President. Last I checked John Boehner was not President of the United States of America.
Obama loses most of his leverage in future hostage negotiations in exchange for a set of budget tweaks that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans. The poor and working class get to keep what they already had in exchange for giving people who are already rich more tax breaks they don't need. That's not a win, its' splitting the baby in half at best, and there will be future opportunities for Republicans to hold the economy hostage again because of this deal. Ending a hostage situation is only a success if you actually save the hostage. Giving the bad guys a ton of money now in return for promises that they may return the hostage unharmed after more concessions are made is only a win if you are the hostage taker.
So call this a win if you'd like, call it a brilliant strategy move by Democrats if that makes you feel good, you can call it a chocolate banana sundae for all I care, but don't tell me that this is some huge victory for Obama and that I would appreciate it if only I could understand how multi-dimensionally awesome it is.
I honestly don't care for chess. I prefer football. In football the team that hits the other guys harder tends to win, and in football when you win the coin toss in overtime you NEVER give the other team the ball. Now the GOP has the ball. If you want to call that a victory for Obama than be my guest. Apparently, you and I have very different ideas of what a victory is. I would have said a victory would be to go over the cliff and then force the GOP to vote for or against every piece of MY legislation piece by piece while using my Presidential bully pulpit to bash them unmercifully for any delays that might cost working class people unnecessary hardship, and I would continue to pound the GOP until I got exactly what I wanted. That would have been a victory. The deal in its' current form is a Pyrrhic victory at best. If I wanted to live in a fantasy world where my leaders are never wrong I could go join the Tea Party tomorrow, so please don't tell me that I am not smart enough to fully appreciate the awesomeness of chess or checkers or chutes and ladders or whatever. This isn't a game. It is people's lives we are talking about, and this deal merely maintains the status quo for the majority of working class Americans without fighting for anything better for them while leaving their fates up for grabs in future hostage taking demands, and on top of that we will be giving the GOP and the wealthiest Americans who caused this economic disaster a bigger piece of the pie than they had before. If that's what you call a victory I would hate to see what enabling a nihilistic hostage taking GOP looks like.
Peace and love to all
Vent off
12:13 PM PT: My apologies, but I have just gotten word that my grandmother has passed away after a short fight with brain cancer. It was not my intent to post a diary like this and then abstain from participating in the comments but I hope you understand why I won't be responding to comments for now, as I have pressing family maters to attend to.
Again, peace and love to all. I hope my grandmother would be proud that we fight for a better world for all of us.