The Shutdown's Silver Lining

One thing is for certain, Dems, liberals, RINOs and the media scored a major victory over the shutdown. However, all sides better observe caution. Repubs, Tea Party, and conservatives should avoid too much self-flagellation and the left would be well-advised to resist the urge to gloat or perform too many end-zone dances. Remember 1992? Geo H.W. Bush had a 89% approval rating in 1991 following the Gulf War and went on to lose less than a year later. People tend to over analyze the importance of political victory and confuse winning battles for winning the war. Timing will mean a lot here. Repubs and conservative might actually benefit from these short-term set-backs in the following way:

1. Had the Repubs been able to roll-back Obamacare, liberals could have said, “Well it would have worked but those mean-spirited, racist, bigoted, homophobe Republicans kept us from being able to give you your free healthcare.” It might actually be better to allow the train wreck and then be legitimately be able to say “See we told you so. We tried to prevent this but we weren’t successful. Don’t blame us.”

2. All politics is local especially with regard to Congressional Representatives. Those who think that the Tea Party candidates will be voted out by the very constituents who sent them to Washington to do exactly what they did are kidding themselves. Purple district candidates might be vulnerable but then again, they always are.

3. Unlike with the economy where liberals were able to make a convincing but in my opinion false argument that this bad economy is still all Bush’s fault, there is no way that if Obamacare turns out to be the disaster conservative predict (and so far is on track to be) it can be blamed on the Republicans. Dems and liberals own this one “Lock, stock and barrel” and they spent the last 2 weeks providing a 24/7 video record of it. When people become truly pissed because they lose their jobs, are forced to go part-time, have their health insurance premiums skyrocket, deductible shoot up to $5000+, employer coverage is dropped, etc, etc, etc. Democrats will be politically bludgeoned to death like baby fur seals by their own words captured on video by their media lackeys.

Time will tell but the future is anything but certain. Upcoming milestones: 01Jan 14 mandatory enrollment begins; 15 Apr 14 first impacts of tax penalties hit; 04 Nov 2014 mid-term elections; 08 Nov 2016 next Presidential election!

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