By David Limbaugh
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Why is it just assumed Republicans will automatically be
blamed for any government shutdown over a budgetary impasse between Obama and
his Democratic Party and Republicans?
More disturbingly, why do so many Republicans and
right-leaning commentators surrender before we've even begun to fight?
Do our moderates believe there is any position President
Obama and the Democrats could take that would result in the public's blaming
Democrats, rather than Republicans, for a shutdown?
The moderates always cite polls that say Republicans will
be blamed, but who decreed that polls are set in stone? Which Republicans, when
they were campaigning for election, promised to govern according to the polls
and not their principles?
But if we must discuss the polls, let me ask you to consider
what would happen if the pollsters framed their questions as follows:
"Will you support efforts by congressional
Republicans to defund Obamacare, even to the point of a government shutdown,
because they believe it is the greatest destroyer of jobs today in America, it
will reduce access to and the quality of health care, it will not ensure
coverage or care for everyone, it will not allow people to keep their own
doctors or their own plans, it will cost the government at least twice what
Obama promised, it will not reduce the health care expenses of a typical family
of four by $2,500 as Obama promised but increase them by some $7,400, it is
such a legislative mess and so burdensome that many have demanded to be
exempted from its various provisions and President Obama, in disregard of his
own health care law and of the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine,
granted, by executive fiat, special exemptions and delays to some and not
others, and that the Internal Revenue Service, which has been caught red-handed
abusing its power against the administration's political opponents, will be in
charge of enforcing Obamacare?
"And, dear voter, wouldn't you agree that it's a bit
unfair to conclude that Republicans are mainly at fault for shutting the government
down when the Democratic Senate has continually ignored its legal duty to pass
budgets, Senate Democrats have flat-out announced they won't negotiate and have
leaked their secret desire that the government shuts down so they can demonize
the Republicans, and Republicans have, in fact, passed several budgets, which
only exclude the funding or delay the implementation of Obamacare, a law that
is very unpopular with the American people?"
Of course, we'll never see poll questions so patently
loaded, especially in favor of the Republican position. And we shouldn't. But
we do see slanted poll questions all the time, subtly nudging the participants
toward a desired response. I'm sure that's the case here.
But we shouldn't be defeated by poll questions based on a
snapshot in time and based on fixed assumptions that don't allow for any change
in public opinion based on future events and communications. Unless he is
clairvoyant, no pollster can factor into his questions the precise unfolding of
events leading to and after a shutdown, and the possibilities of how they're
communicated are endless.
Polls can't possibly predict to any degree of reliability
how the public would respond to a shutdown if Republicans finally united and
articulated a compelling case to the public before and during a shutdown,
including the points contained in my absurd hypothetical poll questions.
What if Republicans got together, instead of shooting one
another in the backs, and made those points and also hammered Obama for
refusing to come to the table on real spending and entitlement cuts?
Objectively speaking, Obama's position all along has been
indefensible. Almost nothing he's said about Obamacare is true -- and this can
be easily demonstrated. He will not do anything about our short- and long-term
spending problems, and he and his party are the ones who are absolutely
refusing to negotiate in good faith, if at all, on these budgetary issues.
Though I respect my more moderate friends on the right
and don't wholly discount their position, I believe that their default
defeatism and their friendly fire against principled conservatives such as Ted
Cruz are damaging the GOP's chances of convincing the public of the
unreasonableness of Obama's position and the reasonableness of their own.
I believe that if Republicans would finally draw a firm
line in the sand and then go to the media with a united, 24/7 communications
effort, they would -- with their courage, their principled stand and their
contagious patriotism -- reignite the grass roots and inspire many others to
recapture an optimistic spirit, a spirit that says that America is not yet dead
and that there are still elected officeholders who are willing to stake their
careers on saving this nation.
We've been following the moderates' advice, and where has
it gotten us? Where has it gotten the nation?
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