Well, that’s it, really.
But to elaborate just a bit, win/wins are possible in politics, and we can argue whether they won (I would say they did), but there’s no question that WE did. The unity of the caucus was impressive, there seemed to be real discipline on display, and in the end we gave them nothing. Income verification? That would have happened anyway.
So this is a great triumph. They won a moral victory, in the eyes of their hardcores. I can almost guarantee that Ted Cruz will benefit from whatever blame he’s getting now, and he’ll eventually whack Rand Paul or Chris Christie for not being supportive enough of the shutdown. But who cares? He won’t nominate, unless the GOP really goes (further) over the edge.
I think the ACA is stronger. We protected it, and won.
Good work by our side.
I am happy to open this thread if you like.
JimC says
Link
mike_cote says
I heard several people last night on TV saying how we should not pour salt in the wounds of the Republicans, but seriously, if they are going to act like a poorly house trained puppy, just carelessly leaving their pooh on the floor, then I think a rolled up newspaper (mixed metaphor alert) on the nose might be the only thing that stops this behaviour.
jconway says
How the world might be different if the three leaders (Reid, Pelosi and Obama) showed as much discipline and unity of purpose in 2011 over the debt ceiling, in 2010 for the midterms, or in 2009 for the public option. As someone who has called for Reid’s head in the past I am very impressed. Now maybe he can get filibuster reform having broke McConnell’s back. I’m also hopefully optimistic we can avenge Tom Daschle in 2014, and more importantly retake the House if we play our cards right.
In the mirror “up is down” universe on the other side, Cruz looks like a martyr who fought the good fight against impossible odds and would’ve won had Republicans not ‘gone soft’. His candidacy would be the best thing to happen to us since Barry Goldwater.
kbusch says
Kos has a project to switch the legislature in Virginia from Red to Blue. There are a lot of seats in districts that Obama won that are held by Republicans. You can join me in contributing to turn them Democratic. Posting is here and ActBlue page here.
afertig says
But look at what’s happened. Economists are saying that the shutdown hurt the economy to the tune of $24 billion. It hurt real people — I’d definitely urge you to read this story of one worker who was laid off during the shutdown. It’s hard to feel triumphant for successfully navigating the choppy waters of self-inflicted wounds on the part of the Tea Party / GOP types. The right-wing of this country seem increasingly motivated, fundamentally speaking, only by fear and greed. If we don’t have a crisis in February or April, if we can really break this fever, that’s when I’ll feel triumphant.
fenway49 says
as of this morning the options were (1) an end to that suffering with no hostages executed, or (2) continued shutdown and default. With those options we definitely got the best outcome. What happened this month might well prove to be the reason we don’t get a crisis in a few months.
SomervilleTom says
My best friend suggests that we should file a class action suit against the GOP/Tea Party to reclaim that $24B they just squandered.
SomervilleTom says
Since the CU decision affirms that corporations are people and money is speech, it seems like the various PACs and lobbyists could be named as defendants.
Christopher says
Members of Congress are immune from being questioned in any other place for their official actions. The party and other interest groups will say they advocated within the bounds of current law. These issues must be resolved by the voters, not the courts.
SomervilleTom says
I agree about the members of Congress.
I wonder if the PACs and lobbyists are more vulnerable than you suggest. I’ll leave it to the lawyers here to do the lawyering — but I’m pretty sure that civil liability does not require that an illegal act occur. I think this falls in the area of “non-physical tort”, and I think a case could be made that (drawing from here, p152):
– The act (for example, misrepresentation of facts) was committed by the defendant(s),
– The act was deliberate and can be shown to such due to the fact that the defendant had to have known of the potential consequences of the act,
– The resulting harm was actually caused by the act
– Clear damages can be shown to have resulted from the act
While I was mostly facetious in my initial comment, I do think that legal responses like this might be appropriate while the CU decision is the law of the land.
The CU decision itself shows that the other side uses courts whenever it feels it can gain an advantage from such use. The unfettered willingness to lie, combined with essentially unlimited access to broadcast media like FOX, means that the other side uses the CU decision to manipulate the opinion of voters. Using the courts as a vehicle to hit the other side in the pocketbook strikes me as perfectly reasonable and appropriate response.
Plus, the estimated $75/person proceeds if the suit were successful might itself sway a few votes …
JimC says
I don’t think we should feel triumphant, but it was a triumph. We fended off an attack, and should worry about the next one.
It’s harder, being us. Better, but harder.
Trickle up says
Sequester still in place, recovery hobbled, austerians still in charge, poor still getting poorer, banksters still at large, “centrist” ideologues still rule. Does not feel like a win to me, sorry.
One hopeful note: There is now an actual example of firmness working out better than serial appeasement. Who’d have guessed! That’s not damning with faint praise either, though the bar is pretty low.
So call me if we keep it up, if we stop moping about how we can’t retake the House because gerrymander, if we actually field a candidate in every House race, if we contest the state legislatures.
fenway49 says
compared to the alternative, which is everything you mention is still in place and we give up the ACA as a hostage or default. The real work will be in undoing the sequester and I’m hopeful we’ll get something decent in those negotiations.
But the best news, as you say, is that we may have turned a corner on how things work in DC. I really believe the Tea Party crowd never saw it coming. On the 6th Paul Ryan and Co. were saying they were sure Obama would cave as before.
As you suggest, my real hope is for 2014. Retaking the House or at least bringing a GOP majority to a bare minimum would be major progress.
johnk says
TPM has it. Pretty awesome.
fenway49 says
indeed. Let’s hope the trajectory continues in that direction.
johnk says
28 seat swing.
Thank you Ted Cruz!