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No, Really, Replace The Republican Leadership

Earlier this month, I said that the Congressional Republican leadership was lacking in credibility on fiscal and economic policy, because so many of them were tainted by very public support for the former administration’s financial sector bailout, and on account of this and their subsequent political blunders I said they should be replaced. My point […]

Earlier this month, I said that the Congressional Republican leadership was lacking in credibility on fiscal and economic policy, because so many of them were tainted by very public support for the former administration’s financial sector bailout, and on account of this and their subsequent political blunders I said they should be replaced. My point at the time, which quite a few seemed to miss, is that this leadership will not be able to challenge Obama’s domestic agenda effectively, because they have neither the ideas nor the judgment to do so. Now we are seeing the utterly inadequate and foolish response of several members of the current House GOP leadership to one of the first major events overseas since Obama was inaugurated, the Iranian election, which reminds us that the GOP has destroyed its credibility on foreign policy and has been reduced to irresponsible sniping as demonstrated by Eric Cantor and Mike Pence, the minority whip and conference chairman respectively. It is also a reminder that Obama has occupied the political and policy center with respect to foreign policy, and a majority of Americans (57% or 54%) apparently approves of his handling of foreign policy so far. Meanwhile, the reputation of the GOP continues to sink ever lower (25% fav/45% unfav).

One reason why Cantor and Pence have been demanding that the President take a stronger public line in support of the protesters in Iran is that supporting Mousavi’s voters openly is the emotionally satisfying, easy, almost mindless thing to do, so it is very appealing for opposition figures who have no ideas. But there is more to it than that. All of this comes back to the problem of Republican denial about why they lost power. They are supremely confident about their views on national security and foreign policy, and they cannot conceive that a majority of the country would reject them because of the policies they advocated and enacted. Worse still, they remain wedded to the hectoring, moralistic and aggressive approach of the last administration, in which sanctions and condemnation are the only “soft” tools they understand. They are so wedded to this approach that that they think this is not only the best kind of foreign policy, but that anything other than this is fecklessness and surrender. To a disturbingly great extent, replacing the current leadership may not have much of an effect on shoddy foreign policy thinking on the right, because the rot is so deep and widespread, but it is particularly important that Republicans in positions of responsibility at least attempt to play the role of credible, informed opposition, which may sometimes mean acknowledging that the President has handled an issue correctly. It will also mean building up the credibility and knowledge to challenge and resist the President if he embarks on misguided or irresponsible courses in the years to come. Cantor and Pence have shown this week that they do not have either one.

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