Just Ignore 'Em: A Democratic Strategy for the Post-Bush Era

Republicans are never going to allow genuine bipartisanship to happen during an Obama presidency.

They've portrayed Barack Obama as a radical, a socialist who pals around with terrorists. They've called him anti-American and elitist. They've intimated that he's a dark-skinned foreigner, some sort of dangerous Other who threatens our way of life.

Bipartisanship is not an option for them come January 20.

That may come as a disappointment to the American public, which longs for an end to the partisan bickering in Washington. But it doesn't have to.

There's a third option, one that not only satisfies the need to end the constant back-and-forth and gridlock, but also guarantees Barack Obama's reelection in 2012 and Democratic majorities for years to come.

Democrats should just ignore them.

Ingore Republicans in Congress. Ignore their silly amendments, ignore their calls for hearings, ignore the speeches they give, and ignore them when they complain about being ignored.

Ignore their right-wing echo chamber. Ignore Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge and Fox News and their newspapers and blogs. Ignore it when the mainstream media amplifies them.

Ignore the daily talking points and the noise. Ignore the inevitable anti-Obama conspiracy theories. Ignore the horse race as their contenders jockey for position in 2012.

Ignore them all and just... govern.

If things go well on Tuesday, we'll have a Democrat in the White House and big Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress. Even if we don't reach the magic number in the Senate, we can probably get 60 votes on major issues when we need them.

That means President Obama can set a bold, progressive agenda and Congress can pass it with little or no fuss.

Republicans can complain all they want. They can yell about raising taxes when we cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans. They can cry "socialism" as we guarantee every man, woman, and child in America health care coverage. They can warn that we're wrecking the economy as we build a new green economy with millions of new jobs, energy independence, and an end to global warming. They can try to rouse fears of a more dangerous world as we finally take our security seriously and rebuild America's reputation.

Let them complain. We'll just govern, and govern well. And come election time -- in 2010, 2012, and beyond -- we'll be rewarded at the ballot box. You really think Americans are going to vote against the president and the Congress who finally gave them health care? You think if we fix our economy and create jobs that a few silly slogans from the far right will matter?

Republicans will be left with nothing but the culture wars of the last century, trying to win on abortion and gay marriage when the rest of us have moved on. They'll be pushed further toward the role of a fringe, regional party, with their candidates vulnerable to third-party spoilers like libertarians and theocrats.

Leave the partisan bickering to them. We may not usher in a new era of bipartisanship, but we can give Americans all they've ever really wanted: a government that stands up for them.

Comments

[abro915]

As a recent Republican convert to Independent, I don't believe anyone has to waste energy ignoring the Republicans. The RNC has done a quite effective job of casting the party out to the fringe without any help from Democrats.
Through its campaign of misinformation, encouragement of prejudices and fears, as well as promotion of wholly incompetent candidates, the RNC chose to battle, not the Democrats, but a far more invincible enemy - information technology.
Both parties have historically been successful pushing misinformation, if not blatant lies, to promote their causes. In fact, both regularly call on advertising experts to help sell their wares. But even the most savvy advertisers know there is a limit to what they can push. With the advent of the internet and expanded broadcasting, it's too easy to vet exaggerated claims.
The RNC's insistence on casting idiots as "true Americans" and the educated as "elitists" only exposed them as charlatans, and the Republican party a wretched gathering of the greedy and the gullible. Watching McCain immediately reminds me of some old low-grade spaghetti western scene where a conniving peddler is pawning off snake old to a gathering of ignorant townsfolk. And invariably, there is the idiot "apprentice" who guises himself - or in this case, herself - as "proof" of the "potion's potent power".
I loved those old movies. But they're fading into history as quickly as the cellulose they were filmed on. And so the Republican party if they don't re-image themselves.

[dragonfur]

I wonder, if we get 60 in the Senate, and the White House, will Pelosi and Reid get over whatever the Bush regime has frightened them into total submission with thus far? Obama may not get the support he needs to pass his reforms if the Democratic "leaders" continue to cow and pee on themselves like spanked puppies.

I hope Obama's election will give them back their cojones (and ovaries), so they have the courage to do what America needs. I'm sick of their cowardice.

[apeman637]

I can't believe Republicans are amped up their numbers have declined from crisis to crisis. Can hate and lies really truly bring em out I guess when you bring race into it maybe ? To begin with bigots not being to bright to start out little else is needed to incite these low info voters. This is what day was bone fo !!! Stirrin up little things and making dem big things. Since your dealing with unintelligible forces. You can hardly ignore them. Watch them close these types are usally always suspect of criminal acts. Unpatraitiotic -treasonous- propaganda

[PaulL2]

It is not a matter of ignoring the Republican "right", it is a matter of marginalizing them by following through on the campaign promises and putting forth the legislation that puts working and middle class people first, honesty and transparency in accounting and banking first, access to health insurance first, a real national energy policy first, and a strategy to exit from Iraq first. Many Republicans will come around if the legislation is well thought out, like in 1964-66. Because no Republican who is up for election in 2010 (as in all the Congress and 1/3 of the Senate) is going to want to be on the wrong side of many of these issues, unless the entire district (or state) is a "whack job". Moderate Republicans as a questioning minority will actually be beneficial to an Obama Administration, making sure that the wacky left wing does not go all out of control. Lest we forget, one of the big reasons for the 1994 Republican takeover was Clinton's idiotic "gays in the military" move right after he was elected. This just showed to the right wing Republicans that they could run against him as an "old style left wing Democrat", not the "new Democrat" that he claimed himself to be. If we as a country, not "we" as the Democratic Party, are smart, we will have a 1932 or 1964 election where the positive changes that are made will stick for generations to come.

[kurttrail]

"Even if we don't reach the magic number in the Senate, we can probably get 60 votes on major issues when we need them."

How will "we" get the 60 votes, if "we" ignore the Republicans in the Senate?

I agree about ignoring the far-right punditocracy, but moderate Republicans in the Senate should not be ignored, unless ya'll want 1994 all over again in 2010. Learn from the mistakes of the past, embrace the center, work with the center right of this country, and marginalize the wingnuts on both sides of the political spectrum.

Isn't that the real change that Obama has been promising? Most Americans are not ideologues, and all they really want from our gov't is to help us to create a better future for our progeny. I believe that Obama understands this, and that's why I voted for him. I didn't vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, I voted for who I believe would be the best at reuniting the United States of America.

[texanna]

It would be nice if we could just ignore them, but that's going to be hard to do in the current media environment. While I don't think that bringing back the fairness doctrine is the answer, I do think that the FCC is going to have to do something to loosen the corporatist grip on our airwaves in order to give greater diversity to the information that Americans get. There are too many parts of the country where the only free radio is knee-jerk conservative radio. Too many areas where the print media is owned by large corporations whose agenda is more in keeping the populace ill-informed than knowledgeable. These corporatist media, if not counterbalanced at least or drowned out at best are going to keep the Neocons and Theocrats front and center giving too many Americans the mistaken notion that they still have a big role in the government. We'll be fighting the same fights in 2012 as we are fighting right now if we can't do something about the uneven public forum that these wingnuts enjoy.

[rgblue]

This is a wonderful strategy for the fringe element of the Republican party, which in all honesty has about taken over the party. I'd go a step further and say they should be treated with a condescending humor also, like a parent psychologically out-maneuvering a child with a wink and a nod to onlookers. Dems have to stop enabling the radicals, it's been their biggest mistake and shows lack of spine.

But the previous poster has a good point. The Dems MUST include the more moderate wing of the Republicans, the ones who are not wacky, and treat them with due respect.

[Tonksmom]

If Obama heeds this counsel, I will have voted for him for naught. The thing that appealed to me the first time I heard him, in his Call to Renewal address, was his talk about what Alan Keyes said, and about the doctor who wrote him. They disagreed with him, Keyes did so in a way most would consider offensive. Obama listened.

If we are to end the partisanship, he has to listen. Yes, there are some die-hard conservatives, and probably not a few bigots, who won't care, who will look for every possible opportunity to trip him up. But there are those who, if he genuinely tries to do right by them, will leave off this vile attack-dog politicking and get to work. We need them, too.

Obama listens. I just hope he doesn't listen to this writer.

[Truthsfire]

Oh, WOULD THAT WE COULD just ignore them. Unfortunately, ignoring people like these is like ignoring the cockroach that appears on your kitchen floor. It's just one, and it's not in your food -- perhaps disgusting, but not causing a problem. Pretty soon, you've got hundreds of 'em crawling all over and they have to be exterminated.

People like the Republicans, who have generated strength out of their hatred and their fear-mongering, don't just go away when you ignore them. They'll keep going and keep gathering mental defectives unto themselves and pretty soon they'll be marching down the streets, rousting out people who don't believe the way they do into buses and trains, shipping them off to some prison camp just like their role models did in Germany in the 1930's and 1940's.

Assuming Obama wins next Tuesday, and assuming at the same time that we get an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress, please remember we don't have anything that approaches a Permanent Democratic Majority -- nor would we want one. Democrats will have their day, as we've had it before and will have it again, but sooner or later the times will change and Republicans will be back in power. When that happens, we need to make sure that things will be safe for it. WE NEED to involve decent Republicans (all three of them) in our law-making process to ensure a safe future for ourselves.

[lagumbo]

Just learn to ignore the pundits and enjoy doing it.

[rsimanski]

It might not be as hard as it would seem to ignore the Republicans after January 20. The party, by pandering to its extreme right wing and ignoring the needs of the majority of U.S. citizens, has accomplished the nearly-impossible task of making itself irrelevant.

By making itself irrelevant, the Republican Party has probably turned itself into a minority party. It may take years for it to recover and become relevant again. But this irrelevancy is not necessarily a good thing. Our government was designed with a system of checks and balances. Any time that one party has control over both the executive and legislative branches of government, that system of checks and balances is lost.

[missnina]

Obama's tax plan is NOT original....this same approach was used during Clintons terms in office...and look what we ended up with: Record Low Unemployment & a HUGE Government Surplus...­...everybo­dy made money!!! SO STOP YOUR WHINING and GO VOTE for OBAMA! This isn't Rocket Science, you have 2 choices VOTE FOR OBAMA or just stay home and watch him win on TV.

[D35242]

Sounds exactly like viewpoints that make the Conservative case against Liberal rule.

[bushlies]

Believe me, I would much prefer to ignore this crowd than have to fight my way through them like I did today at our local Obama headquarters. These people are NASTY where I live here in SW Florida. Really scary was the girl (who said she was from the local newspaper) that was taking pictures of everyone going in and out of our office. (I told her if she took MY picture I would break her camera....and I MEANT what I said!

Is this the United States of America? Or are they spelling it "AmeriKa" now?

[michaela75662]

I agree, just ignore them. I NEVER watch/listen to O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, or any of the other Gripey Old Piss-ants! They've all sold their souls (if they had one to begin with) a long time ago. They only way I'll hear about anything they've said is through Olbermann, Maddow, Jon Stewart or Huffington/The Nation/The New Republic/Politico.

[UncivilLibertarian]

That's the best thing that's happened since I went to rabbit-ears instead of cable: NO FOX NEWS!!! You wouldn't believe how happy I've been not listening to that speaking rectum Bill O'Reilly and the evne more noxious Sean Hannity. I like this idea. They're shattering themselves like the Whigs in 1852. Help them along by simply doing nothing.