President Barack Obama often is called one of the most, if not the most, divisive Presidents in American history. Now some pundits are saying that, in the aftermath of the just-postponed debates over funding the government and over the debt ceiling, Obama must put his divisiveness aside and bring opposing parties together by December and January, when the CR and the debt ceiling raise expire, to negotiate. He must now compromise, goes their argument.
Why, though? What’s Obama’s incentive to do that? Aside from the fact that “bringing people together” or compromising aren’t in his nature, I mean.
His “legacy?” His legacy will be that of having been the President who fundamentally changed America, who single-handedly rewrote the terms of our social compact, who reduced us to one-party rule. Obamacare, vast spending and borrowing, “stimulus” are merely his tools for doing that. And he’s already brought them to bear.
He had too much trouble in the just postponed debates? He won, rather resoundingly. He didn’t get the spending or tax increases he wanted, but that’s not where the victory lies. He succeeded in damaging the Republican Party, with the active help of their own foolish tactics, to the point they have very little left with which to…bargain. He’s now in a much stronger position to get his spending and tax increases in the “negotiations” surrounding the end of this year.
His second term agenda? This is the biggest part of the outcome of his divisiveness. I’ve written often about Republican and Conservative tactical and communication incompetence (they can’t sell water in a desert, it seems). Obama will prosper from that incompetence to the point of expanding his hold on the Senate and regaining the House in just a bit over a year. Finally, there’s nothing of intrinsic value in his agenda; it’s just another tool, now to be applied to consolidate one-party rule.
Why should Obama become a uniter now in the short term, when his divisiveness is working so well in the medium term? He has no interest in uniting; he has no need to compromise.
If Conservatives and Republicans are to defeat this Progressive rush to dominance, they must address their failings, and do it promptly.