House Republican leaders have armed their members with their August recess talking point. If you hate government, it is all Obama’s fault.
The AP reports, “House Republicans will take a carefully orchestrated, staunchly anti-Washington campaign to voters this month, blaming President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats for Americans’ unhappiness with government.” The AP story goes on to mention that it might be difficult for House Republicans to blame Democrats and Obama for everything being that they control the House of Representatives, but John Boehner’s spokesperson Michael Steel already had an answer for that, “We have control of only one-half of one-third of the federal government.”
The House Republican argument is that you hate the government because Republicans don’t control enough of it. This argument ignores the fact that most Americans are upset with Washington because there is no cooperation, and it is House Republicans who are behind the vast majority of the gridlock. Then there is the problem of the policies that House Republicans are advocating. John Boehner’s Circus of Dysfunction can only seem to agree on doing one thing, voting repeatedly to repeal Obamacare. That’s it. The House has wasted 15% of their time in session trying to repeal Obamacare.
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The whole blame Obama for everything trick is nothing new. It has been the GOP’s go to move since January of 2009, but what Republicans have always ignored is that even at his lowest, President Obama is more popular than they are. Obama is roughly four times more popular than Congress right now, so House Republicans have decided that they will blame the president for everything.
This strategy will play well in their gerrymandered House districts, which is the entire point. House Republicans never stop thinking about what plays well in their districts. All those votes to repeal Obamacare show the folks back home that the House is working for them. To the rest of the country the whole thing is moronic, but Republicans view this as their path to keeping their majority.
Once again, House Republicans are back in their districts promising to do nothing, but oppose Obama. It sells well there, but it also destroys the national party. As Republican Steve Schmidt recently told The New York Times, “They are totally insulated from public opinion on this because of redistricting. Republicans are gonna continue to hold the House. But then we’ll head into the 2016 presidential election where the electorate is likely to be 2 percent less white than it was in 2012 and 4 percent less white than it was in 2008. This is a simple math equation.’
House Republicans have embraced a plan that only an idiot could love. They are going to insult the majority of the country by pretending like we are all stupid and don’t know what is really going on. It isn’t just insulting. It is should be offensive to anyone with one functioning brain cell, and it is destroying the Republican Party.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
