◼ “Go for the throat!” declares the title of John Dickerson’s latest column for Slate, posted Friday. Its subtitle: “Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party.” - Madeleine Morgenstern/The Blaze
◼ link - John Dickerson/Slate
Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition's most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will leave it, at least temporarily, in disarray.
This theory of political transformation rests on the weaponization (and slight bastardization) of the work by Yale political scientist Stephen Skowronek. Skowronek has written extensively about what distinguishes transformational presidents from caretaker presidents. In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves. Obama's gambit in 2009 was to build a new post-partisan consensus. That didn't work, but by exploiting the weaknesses of today’s Republican Party, Obama has an opportunity to hasten the demise of the old order by increasing the political cost of having the GOP coalition defined by Second Amendment absolutists, climate science deniers, supporters of “self-deportation” and the pure no-tax wing.
The president has the ambition and has picked a second-term agenda that can lead to clarifying fights. The next necessary condition for this theory to work rests on the Republican response. Obama needs two things from the GOP: overreaction and charismatic dissenters.
◼ CBS News Political Director: 'Obama Can Only Cement His Legacy If He Destroys the GOP' - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters
"The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat."
So astonishingly wrote CBS News political director John Dickerson at Slate Friday evening in a piece astonishingly titled "Go for the Throat! Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party."
Dickerson is no longer interested in Obama trying bipartisanship in his second term - as if that's what the President did in his first....
Did I mention this man was the political director for CBS News?
...Is this in any way appropriate for a so-called journalist that's supposed to remain neutral and impartial in his dealings with political leaders?
This is what one expects from people on MSNBC.
◼ FOLLOW UP: They hate me, they really hate me - John Dickerson/CBS News
On the eve of the president's inauguration, I wrote a piece about what President Obama needs to do to be a transformational rather than caretaker president. I was using a very specific definition of transformational presidencies based on my reading of a theory of political science and the president's own words about transformational presidencies from the 2008 campaign. It was also based on these givens: the president is ambitious, has picked politically controversial goals, has little time to operate before he is dubbed a lame-duck president, and has written off working with Republicans. "Bloodier-minded when it comes to beating Republicans," is how Jodi Kantor put it in the New York Times. Given these facts, there is only one logical conclusion for a president who wants to transform American politics: he must take on Republicans--aggressively.
For me, this was a math problem with an unmistakable conclusion. Some people thought I was giving the president my personal advice. No....
People see my article as an argument for one-party power, which is impossible since I posit that Obama's second-term conflict with the GOP will be the first step leading to its rebirth as a majority party. Some assume I hate Republicans. This latter charge will confuse my close relations, who are not only proud conservatives but among Fox News' most ardent fans (the two groups not necessarily overlapping). Indeed, one of the many reactions I received on my reporting on the tensions within the Republican Party came from a family member who wrote: "Barack Obama is the best thing ever for those who believe in conservative principles because it would show that with hard work, regardless of race, anyone can achieve, and it would give Republicans a few years in the wilderness to get back to a coherent philosophy. Now I believe that Obama will help conservatives because he will make them better. He has totally figured out how to use technology to deliver mass customized messages to individual voters and now citizens. Ultimately, this is a great boon to democracy. He is smart and articulate. He is tough and ruthless. All of this will make conservatives and Republicans raise their game. Ultimately, that is good. ... I look forward to a Republican Party that is a worthy adversary and a worthy advocate. Barack Obama should inspire us conservatives to be better, not to be whinier."
You can disagree with that analysis, but it is in keeping with the theory of political transformation that I was articulating as I considered the central question on the eve of Obama's second term: What is the pathway for transforming American politics given the president's current posture? There may be another way to solve this math problem, but I still don't see it.
