GOP Strategy Is To Create An America That Looks Like Scenes From Mad Max-- Now They're Being Blamed

"Who's In Charge?" by Nancy Ohanian

Former Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer asserts that the GOP is a dangerously unserious party and that the Dems should run against their incompetence— Trump and his puppets in Congress. He agrees that Trump’s strategy has been to “make the world seem as chaotic and dangerous as possible and then argue that the 80-year-old President is too old and infirm to protect Americans from that chaos and danger. This is why every Trump speech, Republican ad, and Fox News broadcast paints a picture of America that could easily be mistaken for a scene from Mad Max. Danger in the streets, skyrocketing crime, chaos at the border, and increasing threats abroad are all part of an effort to scare the living daylights out of Americans and play on their concerns about the President’s age. Their thesis: the more unsafe and unmoored people feel, the less likely they are to vote for Joe Biden. Or put another way, the more likely voters are to cast aside their concerns about Trump’s criminality and support the candidate that they view (irrationally) as stronger and more energetic. To date, that strategy has been working. Most people think the country is going in the wrong direction. More Americans are expressing concern about Biden’s age, and Trump has a slight edge in hypothetical general election polls.”

Of course, this strategy can be overplayed— and they did just that by immobilizing Congress in a fraught moment and allowing an internal GOP civil war to break out in full view of the public. “The events of this past week, however, demonstrate a fatal flaw in that strategy,” wrote Pfeiffer. “The more consequential the moment, the less likely voters are to hand over the wheel of the ship to a completely unserious party led by an erratic criminal without the slightest interest in or capacity to govern.”

Meanwhile, the role the Democrats are playing is… the adult in the room, offering calm, reasonable, bipartisan solutions to the Republicans’ mess. On Meet The Press yesterday, Hakeem Jeffries told Kristen Welker that “There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it's important to begin to formalize those discussions. From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have made clear that we want to continue to put people over politics and to fight for things like lower cost, better paying jobs, safer communities, and to build an economy that works from the middle out and the bottom up.On the other hand, House Republicans have been focused on fighting each other. It's time to end the Republican civil war so we can get back to doing the business of the American people. And we as House Democrats are committed to finding that bipartisan path forward in a meaningful way.” It’s all bullshit, of course, but the 16% of the electorate that are swing voters, like this kind of talk.

“We have made clear, publicly and privately,” he responded, “that we are ready, willing, and able to enter into a bipartisan governing coalition that puts the American people first and solves problems for hardworking American taxpayers. My Republican colleagues have a simple choice. They can either double or triple down on the chaos, dysfunction, and extremism. Or, let's have a real conversation about changing the rules of the House so it can work in the best interests of the American people… We are ready to be reasonable in trying to find the common ground necessary to ensure that.”

Pressed by Welker about Democratic demands, he said there are no demands. “We want to ensure that votes are taken on bills that have substantial Democratic support and substantial Republican support so that the extremists aren't able to dictate the agenda. The current rules of the House have facilitated a handful of Republicans being able to determine what gets voted on in the House of Representatives and that undermines the interests of the American people. We can change the rules to facilitate bipartisanship and that should be the starting point of our conversation… We want to reopen the House and get to a place where we can tackle the challenges that are in front of us domestically as well as make sure that we can stand with our close friend, Israel, during her time of need in terms of ensuring Israel's ability to decisively defeat Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization. We need to be able to stand with the Ukrainian people in its effort to defeat Vladimir Putin and Russian aggression… We need to be able to make sure that we can keep the government open to meet the needs of the American people. And so, we are ready, willing, and able to have those conversations.