Time For Republican Silence

I have been stunned the past few months at all the opportunities my fellow Republicans in Washington have missed to shut up. Isn’t anybody up there thinking? Right now you are up against an enormously popular president who is seen as the new Messiah.
Vast numbers of Americans believe that Obama is leading us into the new promised land. He does a masterful job of looking purposely busy. He speaks with a reassuring logic that just conveys calm. To carp at Obama right now is only to make you look vindictively partisan.
Americans say they hate that. Not actually—but they hate the appearance of partisanship. Especially when it is directed at their hero of the moment. Obama is just that. So do the sane thing and hold your peace. Be quiet. Shhhhhh. Let Obama have his day—he will anyway.
Why let him roll over top of you? Why let him make you look mean spirited and, frankly, stupid? With his current popularity that’s all you can appear to be. Don’t do his work for him. Sit back, acknowledge his victory and let him have his day—he will anyway.
If you can’t stand to vote for one of his programs, abstain. En masse. Tell the media you do not agree with him but that you feel he should have his chance to carry out his own policies. After all, he and his party won overwhelmingly. “As the loyal opposition we will do our job and suggest alternatives, but we will not seek to oppose merely for the sake of opposition.”
Look noble. The only other choice you have is to look pig-headed and obstructive. Why should you let him paint that label on you? Back off. Show that rare form of political sportsmanship that makes you look good and doesn’t actually affect the outcome of the game one bit.
Obama isn’t going to be sitting on top of the world forever. He has committed himself in so many directions and has made so many promises that there is no possible way he’s going to stay up there with 60 and 70% approval ratings.
History shows that when a demigod fails to deliver on his promises, his once cheering fans turn on him with mindboggling viciousness. That is very likely to happen to President Obama during the next two or three years.
It will happen in some cases because he tries to do too much; in others, it will happen because he gets exactly what he wants out of Congress and the old saw, “Be careful what you wish for”, comes into play. There is no way the curse of the toxic assets has been defanged. At some point it will come back to bite us.
If he’s really going to create a national health plan without a single payer, he will construct an expensive and unworkable Rube Goldberg contraption that will let all the little steel balls fall on his head. He’s going to solve our educational problems—from Washington? Good luck.
Wait until Afghanistan gets really messy and he’s still got thousands of troops in Iraq, still getting blown up. What if the Chinese pull the rug out from under us and the dollar? What if housing doesn’t come back enough to give everybody enough equity so that they can afford to sell?
What if the plans to reconstitute GM and Chrysler don’t fly? Need I go on with all the possibilities for Obama to get his political fingers badly burned? Nancy Pelosi has an agenda of her own—she’s going to get bolder as the years go by.
Whether she outright obstructs Obama or merely makes herself look foolish (as she did over her charges about CIA lying), she is not going to be the joy of his life.
Obama talks a lot. He’s liable at some point to say something he shouldn’t have. Let him flounder—instead of the Republican Party. We simply don’t have the manpower or the opening now. Let Obama make that opening for us. Given enough time and his own head, he will—all presidents eventually do.
Letting him have things easily right now invites future hubris on his part. That will wreck him far more surely than any Republican opposition could in the present situation. Meanwhile, stand back and take the advice I used to give my soccer playing sons.
Always be there to help the other guy up when he falls—even if you tripped him. It will look good to the referee and leave the opponent without obvious justification for a “get back”. It costs you nothing to stand back and look as if you really were nice people.
The president will go off sides—or get caught holding or roughing the passer. It’ll happen. Just be patient and, for the nonce—while he’s on a roll, just be quiet and let him roll. Then you won’t have destroyed the opportunity he gives you by looking silly and sounding sillier.
That will hurt us worse than anything Obama can do to us. Wait. By next year or certainly the year after, we’ll have our day
Let’s just not ruin it before it even starts!.