Fiscal Cliff II, Humble Pie & Dereliction of Duty

When the House of Representatives voted last week to avert the much ballyhooed “fiscal cliff,” by raising federal income taxes on individuals and couples earning more than $400.000 and $450.000 respectively, something amazing happened. GOP Speaker John Boehner abandoned a tenet of the GOP gospel known as the Hastert rule aka majority of the majority aka super minority rule. As was previously explained in this column “the Hastert rule is about the empowering of a Super Minority in the House of Representatives.” Basically, it works like this, in order for any legislation to proceed to a vote of the full congress, that legislation must first have the support of at least half of the GOP congressional caucus. Half of the GOP’s congressional caucus is equal to about a third of congress IE a minority. The Hastert Super Minority rule is not an official regulation that one will find in the Robert’s Rules of Order nor any other guidebook on parliamentary procedure. It is a radical construct that was made up out of whole cloth by hyper partisan Denny Hastert, for a political party, the GOP, whose members are at once out of step with public opinion on a vast array of issues and who appear diametrically opposed to American principles of fairness. As a majority of the GOP caucus opposed the fiscal cliff deal Speaker Boehner had to eat a rather large helping of Humble Pie in order to do the right thing. Boehner brought the measure to the floor and had  to rely on the votes of Democrats to pass the legislation that averted a national and perhaps global financial crisis.

 

PA GOP Sen. Pat Toomey supports a government shutdown

Fiscal Cliff Redux and Dereliction of Duty
Immediately following the passage of the “fiscal cliff” tax deal in congress CBS News ran the following headline: Fiscal cliff" averted: Time for the "mini-cliffs.” The news item outlined three upcoming potential areas for gridlock including the debt ceiling debate coming in late February-early March, Sequestration, an automatic form of drastic spending cutbacks coming in March and lastly: Another government shutdown could be on the horizon at the end of March. Americans got a glimpse of how these battles would be fought, at least on the Republican side, when Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) went on MSNBC and said “We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary partial government shutdown...” What Sen. Toomey’s statement reflects is the sustained GOP belief in brinkmanship politics by way of dereliction of duty. Unwilling or unable to negotiate reasoned settlements on important issues of federal policy Republicans in congress have been operating on an “I won’t work” approach to governance. Such an approach has already caused harm to and could completely wreck the US economy.

“Con Men vs. Mod Squads”

Congressional Republicans have been aided in their obstruction by gerrymandered districts on steroids. In such districts, drawn by the majority party in state legislatures to insure a definite partisan outcome, too many members of congress are insulated from broad public opinion and therefore see no need to compromise. Nate Silver of the New York Times blog FiveThirtyEight.com estimates that there are only 35 competitive districts in the entire U.S. To combat partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts some reformers are pushing for independent redistricting panels. However, there are other ways that could in fact hasten independent redistricting in the future and even neutralize partisan gerrymandering right now. More on that in moment.
 

Democrats were caught flatfooted in the 2010 the midterm elections. Coming on the heels of two years of Democratic control of the House and the Senate and White House, Democrats lacked a cohesive message going into the midterm elections, lost control of the national debate and ultimately lost the House of Representatives to the GOP. As the 2014 midterm elections are on the horizon, Democrats would do well to begin strategizing on how to win a majority in the 35 competitive districts identified by Nate Silver. Fairly drawn districts should be a priority for both Democrats and moderate Republicans. Moderate Republicans across America should be seeking ways to save their party from political extremists that many believe will lead the party to extinction. One way forward can be found in Tom Franks’ book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” In Chapter 5: “Con Men v. Mod Squads” Frank discusses how conservatives and moderate Republicans in Kansas waged war against each other (throughout the 1980s, 90s and 2000s) resulting in congressional and gubernatorial victories for Democrats. Franks: “In 1998 a Democrat was elected to Congress by Republican-dominated Johnson County, and in 2002 a Democrat (Kathleen Sebelius) was elected Governor. These were due to rejection of "Con" candidates by "Mod" Republican voters.” Democrats should lay the groundwork now for convincing moderate Republicans to reject conservative Republican candidates on several basis including conservative opposition to reproductive rights, their inability to govern and their preplanned dereliction of duty as exemplified in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator, Pat Toomey. For their part moderate Republicans should take concerted steps to win back their party from the dereliction of duty conservatives. Moderate Republicans can achieve this in two ways, 1. by challenging conservatives instead of cow towing to them and 2. by not endorsing conservatives if they prevail in the GOP primary.
 

To achieve the broader goal of creating fair districts both Democrats and moderate Republicans should join together to fight to redraw districts either in their state legislature and/or by way of ballot measures that would both create an independent redistricting panel and mandate immediate redistricting instead of waiting for the new census in 2021.
Brent Scott/Executive Director of Vote by Mail America