Sometimes I think the Democratic Party simply doesn't understand how the process of negotiation works. Take the current political posturing around the debt ceiling and budget. The Republican position is clear: no tax increases on the wealthiest Americans will be accepted; deep cuts to domestic spending are necessary, even if that means decimating social safety net programs. The response from the Democratic Party has been that everything must be on the table, including repealing tax cuts and domestic spending cuts. Unbelievably, the Democratic Party has already made it clear that cuts to social safety net programs will probably be inevitable. I, for one, am tired of the Democratic Party's terrible negotiation tactics and miscalculation that they will somehow be rewarded for being the only reasonable party.
On this Independence Day, instead of swilling cheap American beer and fouling the air with sulfur-dioxide fumes, it is worth mourning the deplorable conditions conservatives have imposed on the majority of the population.A True Independence Day: Debunking the GOP's American Exceptionalism is more than just another great post from PoliticusUSA; it is precisely the sort of reminder we need. Our country has indeed been harmed by Republican policies. Today is a perfect occasion to reflect on this and what we are going to do about it.
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Imagine that you are buying a used car. The sticker says $14,995, and you are fairly confident that it would make sense to buy it if you can get it for $12,500. What do you do? You certainly don't offer $12,500 at the outset because you know full well what will happen if you do. You will end up paying more than that because you have left yourself no room for negotiation. Instead, you might start at $9,500 with the goal of getting to $12,500 at the end.
For reasons I cannot comprehend, the Democratic Party does not seem to understand negotiation. We saw a disturbing example of this during the debate over health care reform. The initial Republican position was that nothing should change. They wanted to defeat any efforts at reform, so no change at all would have been a complete success. Instead of starting from what would have been a complete success for them (i.e., Medicare for all) and hoping to end up somewhere in the middle, the Democratic Party did something strange. They voluntarily threw out the ideal.
If you remember how the negotiations played out, the Democrats started with a very weak sort of public option. Even if they had ultimately achieved this, it would have been an imperfect solution. But by starting here, they ensured they would never get it. They have actually seemed surprised when those of us on the left criticized the "reform" on which they have tried to sell us.
What are we to conclude from this? Is the Democratic Party thoroughly inept when it comes to basic negotiation? Did they not really want a public option? I'm not sure which is worse, and it now appears that we are going down a similar road with the debate over the budget and debt ceiling.
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