Bad strategies

This is a very late post. I’m hoping that with my day off tomorrow, I can get caught up, but as soon as I post this I am planning on working another hour of overtime, and hoping to write five pages in the screenplay. So, that’s just how it goes.

I did still get to read some news, and one of the most interesting things today was this piece by Ezra Klein:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/10/30/mitch-mcconnell-and-john-boehners-strategy-worked/

There are a few things that are interesting about this. One is just that what these endorsements really boil down to is at its best throwing in the towel on reasonable behavior, and at its worst the sort of thought that goes along with “Well she shouldn’t have been wearing that tight skirt.”

The other interesting thing is Klein’s point is that you don’t want to reward gridlock because that will lead to more of it. There is something to that point, though I am not sure that I agree with his assumption that a Democrat legislature would use it against a Republican president. We haven’t had a chance to observe every possibility of course, but based on observed behavior, obstructionism has been much more of a Republican strategy, while the Democrat strategy has been compromise until you fold.

However, I think there is a much more important point about the consequences of voting for Romney because Congress will work for him, and that is the types of things they will work on. GOP control of the legislative and executive branches could be expected to be devastating to the economy, the environment, healthcare, and as opportunities came up to appoint new Supreme Court justices, I would expect a big shift to the right there, with all of those attendent consequences.

Now, if you are in line with the conservative ideologies, and think that more tax cuts and less regulations are what will fix the economy, and there is no such thing as global warming, and Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act should be overturned, and the sooner the better, then obviously, Romney Ryan is the ticket you want. However, that did not seem to be the point of view of these endorsements.

When you have people with destructive goals, cooperation can be disastrous. A better strategy is to vote more Democrats into Congress, and if your officials are the obstructionists, write to them, and get other people involved. Yes, they need their corporate donor money, but they need it so they can get votes, and it doesn’t have to work. Frankly, the less it works, the better for all of us.