David Brooks on How the Republicans Blew an Opportunity

There is a great opinion piece in the New York Times by David Brooks today about how practical conservatives blew their chance to turn the battle of the debt ceiling into a big victory for themselves and the country as a whole.  With a little compromise on their part to reform the tax code and a democratic president willing to tinker with Social Security and Medicare, government as a whole could have actually accomplished something.  Instead, Eric Cantor and his young guns dug in their heels and we're going to wind up with the status quo.

My favorite bit of the article is when Brooks lays blame at the various groups who are involved in the government but who have no interest in accomplishing anything that is off message:

The Big Government Blowhards. The talk-radio jocks are not in the business of promoting conservative governance. They are in the business of building an audience by stroking the pleasure centers of their listeners.


The Show Horses. Republicans now have a group of political celebrities who are marvelously uninterested in actually producing results. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann produce tweets, not laws. They have created a climate in which purity is prized over practicality.

We all need to be more critical in how we receive information about how we are governed.  Turning off Rush and his ilk and tuning out the nonsensical soundbites seems to be a good start.  It's also time to remember grandma's advice about half a loaf being better than nothing with regard to how compromises are "off the table" in the current congress.