Rooting for the Worst

They want the president to fail. That's the drumbeat we've heard for months now. When Senator Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) recently said that health care would be Obama's "Waterloo," did he remember that he and his commander-in-chief were part of the same country? Did DeMint remember that with Napoleon's defeat France was a humiliated country, occupied by foreign powers? What does the good senator think happens to America when our president confronts his Waterloo?

What makes opposition take the form of rooting for the worst outcome? Of course, it doesn't have to be that way. Just listen to Orin Hatch wistfully recall his deal making with Ted Kennedy. We should expect the party in opposition to try to ameliorate what its members see as the negative aspects of legislation that comes before them. When they don't have the votes to carry the day with amendments that express their point of view, we also expect them to stand in opposition: to create delays in implementation and to continue to make the case for alternative policies and perspectives.

But since January we have consistently seen key Republican leaders go beyond the rhetoric of a loyal opposition. Instead, they express an intense desire to see the new President and his crew run aground. The motivation seems fairly simple: If the president fails in his early efforts, then he will be on a slippery slope of political decline and the Republicans can gain the upper hand in the mid-term elections. But there seems to be no concern with the consequences of failure for the country. Without health care reform, what happens to the millions of uninsured? Without economic growth and job creation, what will happen to citizens without hope for the future? Without success in Afghanistan, what will happen to America's standing in the world and to our security at home?

They want the president to fail. But in rooting for the worst, some Republican leaders betray their own callous disregard for the fate of our country. How can they hope for Waterloo? This is not just about Barack Obama. This is about our collective future.

Comments

[Zuzette]

In addition to trying to make political hay for the mid-term elections, it's a tit-for-tat thing. Rebublicans want to get back at Democrats for thinking so poorly of Bush (& by extention, of all of them). The difference is, Bush deserved to be thought poorly of. That his presidency was an 8 year disaster for this country is indisputable.
Obama, on the other hand, deserves respect for his clear thinking & dogged dedication to problem solving for all Americans. I am continually impressed by his ability to brush off the media broo-ha-has (MSM & otherwise) & stay calm & focused. In light of that, & the harder they try, all the wacky, made-up Rebublican rabble-rousing just deflates & collapses in on itself. They appear so eager to look like fools for the sake of the votes of the fools they pander to.

[paixa3]

I hope someone starts callout these people publically. They are TRAITORS to the USA citizens.

[noneIn2008]

Keep trying to deceive the people by framing it as Dem vs Republican. The facade is used to split the people and to raise campaign funds. It is Washington, run by special interest, vs the people. They cram through bills laden with rewards for their special interests at the cost of the people. We know in the end the mercantilist win. The people pay and Goldman makes record profits. We pay and the GM union wins. The bigger problem for Washington is when the people see the man behind the curtain and realize the Dems and Reps are two sides of the same coin, minted by the banks.

[jsgaetano]

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone paying attention during the past eight years (or, really, 30+ years) that a conservative's only motivation is their intense, loathing, bitter hatred of America.

[essbird]

No, they love an idealized America that never existed except in our grade school textbooks; not the real one, not the one on the Statue of Liberty or in the Declaration of Independence, which is way too messy for them. Just listen to Pat Buchanan, who is either courageous or dumb enough to put in words what the Republican base believes.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"Republican leaders express an intense desire to see the new President and his crew run aground."

The Party of NO and the Blue Dogs say they "don't want to rush this through" ... but Rachel Maddow showed last night that all the way back to the l940's Presidents have been making speeches WARNING that our healthcare system needed reform.

The OJECTIVE of this OBSTRUCTIONISM is the R A C I S T S efforts to ensure that the FIRST BLACK President DOES NOT get the HONORARY distinction in US history of being "THE ONE" ... "THAT ONE" ... who FINALLY FOUGHT to FIX what's been ailing us ALL THESE YEARS!!!

[GHO]

Why is it that so many posters on this site can't get through the day without playing the race card?? What did this have to do with race? Do you honestly believe that if Hillary or Edwards were the POTUS, that these same Republicans would just gladly drop their objections and line up to sign off on these same policies?? They wouldn't, so what has race to do with it?

Sadly, this is the all-too-common mode of "debate" on this board - when you have nothing concrete or useful to say, just call people bigots, racists, or Nazis.

You demean yourself more than you demean others.

[aishadl]

Answer is simple: Would the media truly entertain the idealology being spouted against President Obama if it where President Clinton?

Would anyone question her birth, her ethnicity, her very right to BE POTUS? Would they GKOKPK send around sexist emails, videos, make up songs about Pres. Clinton?

Would soldiers REFUSE to deploy because she was President?

WOULD SHE GET MORE DEATH THREATS THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY?

If you don't ask yourself this question and come up with a reasonable explaination how can you definitively say that racism doesn't play a part in the GOP's vigilant opposition to the POTUS?

Saying racismism isn't a cause or doesn't exist is the excuse of cowards.

[msyphax]

They want Obama to fail. They want to "break" him. They want to see his birth certificate. They want to make him an alien - communist - socialist. These are personal attacks. The missing piece is racism. They want this black man to be shown his place. Nobody wants to broach that subject as a major motivation for the vehemence of these attacks. The extreme right is being driven to madness by the thought that an African American has actually become President. The election of Obama demonstrates quite clearly the progress that has been made and the distance we have yet to travel regarding race in America. It also shows the changing demographics in the country. The GOP base is shrinking in proportion to the drooling insanity it embodies.

In fact, the election of Obama is telling us a lot about ourselves and the state of the nation, and not just about race relations. We will see perhaps just how far corporate control has embedded itself in our government as we see how healthcare comes out, for instance (we've seen the bank bailout already, and it ain't pretty). We, on the left, may get an idea why Obama has seemed to back off so many of his campaign promises, and why he's defending some of the most egregious policies of the Bush Admin.

Pay attention folks. There's a lot to learn.

[Rogan]

I'm paying attention. But I'm also desperately trying to figure out how to afford to leave the country. Just for five or ten years, until things settle down... I hear Canada is nice, but I hate the snow...

[jsgaetano]

Somolia should be good- it's a conservative paradise! Small government, no taxes.

Heck, if any conservatives want to relocate to Somolia, I'll start up a fund to pay for their one way tickets.

[LorettaSingbiel]

"They want Obama to fail. They want to "break" him. They want to see his birth certificate. They want to make him an alien - communist - socialist."

And we mustn't forget that he's been "pallin' around with terrorists"!

"The missing piece is racism."

YOU BETCHA!!! It's the reason for McCain's Palin pick ... to round up Clinton's democratic "supporters"!

[rocketman69]

At least they're not wanting to charge him as a war criminal.

[Rogan]

Not yet. Give them some time. Six months maybe.

[Hiphopcrates]

None dare call it treason!

[BluGrass]

Good post, President Roth. I'm proud you wrote it.

member of the class of l975

[jimbobre]

What's missing is a 5 letter word called c-o-m-i-t-y. Comity is the glue that holds a nation, especially democracies. together. It is the willingness of the losers in an election to stand aside and let the winners govern. It is the winners, in that same election, treating the losers with respect and dignity. It is the recoognition by all sides that the bottom line is everyone, despite their political beliefs, is working toward the good of the society. It is giving space to and defending ideas we don't necessarily agree with.

Because we don't have comity between political factions, it's doubtful we'll win the ongoing competition with the Chinese, Indians, Europeans or whoever else shall arise in the next few decades. We're like a team on which some would rather see teammates fail than make a great play. This is what is meant by the rot within.

[ThanksMatt]

Thank you for this article, Michael Roth, and thank you for your addition, jimobre.

[Apov]

The Rot doesn't understand the bottom line is everyone.

The Rot doesn't understand working towards the good of the society.

Never have, never will.

The Rot will hasten the decline of our nation.

[Rogan]

So true. And so sad. And frightening.

It's abundantly obvious down here at street level... there's a large group of Americans now who are angry at and afraid of all the other Americans... and they all use their jobs, their social positions, everything they have, to hurt the people around them, just because that angry hurtful way of life is a matter of philosophy to them. They've all become Ayn Rand influenced sociopaths, behaving like they're continually thirty seconds away from a major tantrum meltdown... What can we do? What is there to do? Someone else posting nearby suggested that when the Democrats have forced real health care reform through, and everyone can see how well it works, this huge social knot our country is tangled in, will start to unravel and resolve itself... I hope that's true...

[essbird]

No, the Reps and Dems who are in the pockets of the insurance industry will put enough poison pills in it that it won't work and will become another poster child for government incompetence. Too bad. We can't have a good program like this without campaign finance reform and a few years for the poison to flush out. Anybody like the Medicare Part D prescription program? I know, the Republicans did that one, but Baucus doesn't appear to be headed in a better direction.

[LMPE]

As it so happens, the Republicans are doing their duty: obeying Boss Limbaugh.

[Koreboomer]

This country's become
The Divided States of America

[baddadd49]

this nation will never again be united and you libs can thank each other for that, 8 years of wishing failure and worse on Bush and its still going on, and funny I dont see any anti-war protesters anymore, why is that?

[SeriousBlack]

Same old tired misrepresentation of what happened with respect to "libs" and the Bush administration.

What "conservs" don't seem to be able to either comprehend and/or admit to themselves is that during the Bush administration, we weren't WISHING failure and worse on Bush.

What we were doing was watching helplessly while Bush and Cheney and the Republicans had all the power and WERE. FAILING.

And then we RE-ACT-ED to and criticized and were disgusted BY. THAT. FAILURE. By their failure and incompetence and lies (all the way into a needless war) and destruction of the constitution and our economy.

THAT'S what WE were doing. We (most of us, anyway) were not WISHING failure on Bush. We were complaining *****AFTER***** HIS MANY FAILURES.

Just a SLIGHT difference.

[jimbobre]

You're wrong, wrong wrong. Liberals didn't WISH for Bush's failure. We disliked, intensely, many of the things the Bush administration supported, i.e war in Iraq, torture, tax cuts for the rich, etc. The list is long, and liberals were arguing Bush's policies wouldn't work. You can't point to any liberals, even on the fringe, who HOPED Bush failed. That's an entirely different desire. It means you want the country to fail during particular president's term for some perverse reason.

[baddadd49]

libs said over and over including reid and pelosi"the war is lost" "the surge has failed" while we have troops in harms way and THAT is hoping and saying you want bush and the military and America to fail.

[SeriousBlack]

"and funny I dont see any anti-war protesters anymore, why is that?"

Simple answer.

Because our CURRENT president has denounced over and over the reasons for the war in Iraq and that it should never have happened, and is at least TRYING to wind it down and get us out of there. I ask you, did GWB ever do any of those things?

And the fact that it is not happening as fast as some people would like is STILL not worthy of being out on the streets protesting like there was against Bush, because we realize what a huge mess Bush left us with and how mired in a terrible situation the incompetent fool got us in.

[cbat]

Amen brother.

[moderationisbest]

A bit hypocritical (as always is the case when the Left and Right talk about any issue). As a cottage industry of hating the prior President was essentially hatched from the day the disputed 2000 election ended until the 2008 election (Moveon.org, HuffPo, MSNBC - hardly existed if at all except for hating and rooting for a certain person/party's failure on all issues), tough to lament how the other set of wing nuts (this set on the right) is now rooting for failure. Enough already. There are so many haters on both sides of the aisle it's exhausting.

[MerlinJames]

amen brother...and to think that clear thinking people on both sides condemn the other as extremist about the same issues....­laughable.

[DanBest]

I'm all for informed moderates. But most moderates are that way because they're lazy and misinformed. They can't be coaxed off the fence because it's so much fun to act as if they are above it all. But reading you claim that this all started in 2000 is too much. The occupant previous to Bush was Clinton. Remeber that guy? The GOP made sure that he was impeached for an affair with an intern. But you ignore that and go with the guy who lost the popular vote and was appointed by the Supreme Court. So maybe those on the left had a reason. They felt that the proccess was shortcircuited by an intervention on the part of the conservatives on the court. Claiming that anyone who speaks out is a hater says more about your wishy washy beliefs than it does either the left or the right. I would venture to say that you are the problem. People like you who pretend to drive down the middle of the road when there are only two lanes. I have more respect for those in opposition to my beliefs than I ever will for you. If you're exhausted by it all this democracy stuff then please stay home and take a nap.

[MerlinJames]

wow a blast from the 60's. so you are saying that people that have diverse opini ons on the issues that make up living on the planet are weird?

sorry champ....extre mists on either side are the problem. If you cannot see the other side or appreciate why someone feels differently than yourself, then you are the problem, not the solution. "Only two lanes"? Yikes!! Good luck with you r life.

[Gunga-Din]

Rooting for the worst?No is necessary.