Paying Attention

Herein be random ruminations on politics, history, ideas, spirituality, religion, education, media, life, relationships, culture... and Boston sports when I really want to vent.

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." (ubiquitous)

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and never will." (Frederick Douglass)

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." (Susan B. Anthony)

"Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible." (William Sloane Coffin)

January 23, 2012 8:26 pm

WHAT’S A REPUBLICAN TO DO?

Tomorrow night will present a real dilemma for Republican House and Senate members listening to President Obama deliver his State of the Union speech.

On the one hand, if they show ANY inclination to listen to Obama or cooperate with him — if they applaud anything he says — they risk pissing off their base.  They’ll risk the wrath or electoral indifference of Tea Party or Radical Christian Right haters.

On the other hand, if they openly disrespect the president or appear uninterested in cooperating with him in this time of national distress, they risk alienating the vast moderate majority which actually decides election outcomes.  Partisan jihad over bipartisan cooperation?  Openly trying to make the president (and with him, the nation) fail?  The moderate majority watching at home might interpret that as… I dunno… unpatriotic.  Or worse.

The State of the Union address is one-half speech and three-fourths political theater.  The cameras will be on, so what should Republicans do as the president speaks?  Throw red meat to their rabid base, or act like they are actually statesmen interested in working with Obama, the Great Satan, to solve our national problems… like the Constitutional Framers envisioned? 

It says a lot about today’s GOP that this will actually be an existential dilemma for them tomorrow night.

What’s a Republican to do?  Tune in and see.

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