Douthat on doldrums and disconnects

Ross is one unhappy populist--so unhappy, he reads more like Paul Krugman than the conservative Catholic he is:

In part, this disconnect between country and capital [voters want job creation; the WH is emphasizing immigration reform, gun control and climate change] reflects the limits gridlock puts on governance. The ideological divides in Washington--between right and left, and between different factions within the House Republican caucus--make action on first-rank issues unusually difficult, so it’s natural that politicians would look for compromises on lower-priority debates instead.       

That’s the generous way of looking at it, at least. The more cynical take is that D.C. gridlock has given the political class an excuse to ignore the country’s most pressing problem--a lack of decent jobs at decent wages, with a deeper social crisis at work underneath--and pursue its own pet causes instead.

Yet the whys are less important than the whats, as well as less interesting, in that Washington's gridlock has become the commentariat's carousel. Endless, repetitious motion with no real destination. We've all written about it till we're bug-eyed, as readers no doubt are. Yes, there's gridlock, lots and lots of gridlock, so the Obama administration is keeping its head down on immigration reform and--speaking of zombies--mostly avoiding effective Republican majorities in Congress through executive orders (climate change) and relatively small stuff (loopholed gun control).     

The doldrums, indeed; an excellent opportunity to launch a major rhetorical offensive on the bigger stuff--chronically high unemployment--and against the biggest stuff--the treacherous opposition, which is blocking all advisable movement on the bigger stuff, which, as Douthat correctly notes, is the electorate's Number One concern.  

Republicans, as Douthat also correctly notes, are at their weakest point ever: They are "sticking with an agenda [abortion bans and ObamaCare's repeal] that’s even more disconnected from the anxieties of the average voter than the White House’s second-term priorities."

Hit them. Hit them now, while they're down. Don't wait for institutional dysfunction to become the body politic's accepted norm, in which both parties will suffer. Republicans lack a coherent jobs policy and the most aggressive way to advertise that is for the White House to re-introduce one itself, even though in present circumstances it would never advance beyond the rhetorical stage.

Don't wait for public despondency to set in. That's a hard thing to turn around; it's why FDR habitually hammered the notion of hope and relentlessly proffered government as a positive force of change.     

Comments

[Peter G]

I agree with you. Push a jobs bill despite the fact the administration will almost certainly not succeed. What I don't get is why ou think the same sensible strategy of jabbing Republican sore spots doesn't apply to things like immigration reform. You seem to fear success of that even more than failure when, in fact , either will serve to probe those sore spots.

[Turgidson]

I also agree that the White House should remind the public at regular intervals, increasing as we approach 2014, that it does in fact have a jobs program. A budget-neutral jobs program, no less, that would create a couple million jobs and prioritize infrastructure upgrades.

But Douche-Hat knows full well that the White House is pursuing other priorities because it knows the Clown Car Caucus would sooner stab their own eyes out than move an Obama jobs bill out of its chamber. And it still annoys me that "the White House isn't focused on jobs" is a so breezily-repeated bit of conventional wisdom. Fine, that has some literal truth to it. But omitting the "why" is mendacious.

[Robert Lipscomb]

I am confused. I thought the stated strategy was to give up, do nothing and blame the GOP for obstruction; thenuse that to win the 2014 elections..

[clarence swinney]

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT
Can she use Bill and duplicate this outstanding record?
CLINTON PRAISE-WITH PLEASURE
GDP--rose from 6300 to 11,600
NATIONAL INCOME-5,000 to 8,000 Billion--took 20 years to grow 2500B before Clinton
JOBS CREATED--over 22 million--record by far
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS--$360 to $478
AVERAGE WEEKLY HOURS WORKED--never hit 35.0--hit that  mark 4 times in 80's
UNEMPLOYMENT--from 7.2% down down down to 3.9%
WELFARE TO WORK—11,533,710 on federal roll in 1996 and 3,880,321 in 2007.
MINIMUM WAGE--$4.25 to $5.15
MINORITIES--did exceedingly well
HOME OWNERSHIP--hit all time high
DEFICIT--290 Billion to whoopee a SURPLUS
DEBT----+28%---300% increase over prior12 years
FEDERAL SPENDING--+28%---80% under Reagan- who da true conservative?
DOW JONES AVERAGE--3,500 to 11,800  all it's history to get to 3500 and Clinton zooms it
NASDAQ--700 to 5,000---all of it's history to get to 700 and Clinton zooms it
VALUES INDEXES-- almost all bad went down--good went up in zoom zoom zoom
FOREIGN AFFAIRS--Peace on Earth good will toward each other---Mark of a true Christian--what has Bush done to Peace on Earth?
POPULARITY---highest poll ratings  in history during peacetime in  AFRICA, ASIA AND EUROPE even 98.5% in Moscow--left office with highest gallup rating since it was started in 1920's.
STAND UP FOR JUSTICE--evil conservatives spent $110,000,000 on hearings and investigations and caught--- ONE--- very evil man who took a few plane rides to events.
BOW YOUR HEADS--Thank you God for sending us a man of Bill Clinton's character, intelligence, knowledge of governance, ability to face up to crises without whimpering and a great leader of the world.
THANK YOU GOD FOR THE GOOD TIMES THE CLINTON YEARS.

[bughunter]

You err in believing that DC Politics is a contest. It's not. It has more in common with Professional Wrestling than any other sort of contest, because it's a sideshow. A distraction put on for our media and our "concerned" citizens so that the multinational corporate kleptocrats who own the contestants can pillage our national resources, can plunder the products of our labor, rape our freedoms...

The Democrats have no interest in winning. Their role is to put up a merely token fight on behalf of the victims in this deal (you and me, our children, and the things we were taught that an ethical, competent, compassionate government stood for) and then to cave at the last minute, to ensure that our liberties and our common wealth can continue to be stolen by the Monsantos and the Goldman Sachses and the ExxonMobils and the GE's, to name only a few.

If Dems "defeat" Republicans, how can the sideshow continue? No, the GOP will persevere, no matter how perverse they become.