After the Congressional Republican’s Pickett’s Charge
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Learning from battles lost and not repeating them
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Yesterday the government shutdown ended as Senator Cruz and his cabal capitulated on a deal between Democrats and Republicans that re-opened a small portion of government, increased the borrowing limit for the U.S. government and most notably, gave virtually nothing to Republicans to assuage the damage they endured by forcing this ill-conceived charge into the fortified Obama lines. If this had been a military campaign, it would’ve ranked up there with the disastrous Civil War’s Pickett’s Charge that had 12,000 Confederate troops charge into the Union line only to be slaughtered. Thank God Senator Cruz confines his efforts to politics and not as a commanding officer in the military.
Yet the deal merely creates another opportunity for similar confrontation next February and it is not certain if Senator Pickett has learned enough of a lesson to not try such a stunt again.
Robert E. Lee realized the futility and foolishness of Pickett’s Charge that he ordered immediately after it failed; will Senator Cruz realize his government shutdown was a mistake?
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But as the Republican leadership has re-taken control of its caucus at least for now, some planning to prevent another hijacking of the party would not only benefit the party and the country but also the leadership’s chances of remaining the leadership.
First, Senators Cruz and his ilk should be given a remedial civics lesson to better understand that a party that only controls one house of congress and not the White House cannot drive the agenda. The ultimate answer which lies 3 1/2 years off, to overturn Obamacare, is for Republicans to win the White House and senate while retaining the House. Thanks to Senator Cruz, keeping the House has now become even more challenging given this fiasco. Ironically, Senator Cruz might help to ultimately preserve Obamacare.
Second, all Republicans would do well to understand that President Obama is not one to sympathize with Republicans or their positions, let alone compromise with them (see: “U.S. Obama”, September 25, 2013). He saves such courtesy for rogue dictators (Bashar Asaad, Kim Jong Un) or Vladimir Putin. And just because President Obama says he’s willing to negotiate, that doesn’t mean he’ll compromise. It is a distinction with a difference that even Bill Clinton, the infamous dissector of the word “the,” could appreciate.
Finally, given above, Republicans should realize that they should not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Specifically, they should try to chip away at Obamacare and not try to firebomb the entire law which they can’t do anyway. An excellent start would be to repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax that has broad bi-partisan support and has been especially destructive to the medical device industry. It is also still not too late to suggest that the individual mandate be modified or moved from January 1, 2014. Incremental progress is better than no progress at all.
The government shutdown hurt the Republicans but more importantly it hurt the country as Republicans are the adult voice on matters of fiscal restraint and Obamacare. Mr. Cruz and his fellow warriors should keep that in mind the next time he wants his party to charge into a political machine-gun nest.
-I.M. Windee
