By William Tucker on 12.10.12 @ 6:09AM
A way out for Republicans tired of being bullied by Obama and goons.
Do you know anything about Ju-Jitsu? It's the martial art developed by Japanese Samurai to aid a lone warrior without his weapon confronting an armed opponent. When such direct combat seems suicidal, the technique becomes to use your opponent's own weight against him rather than trying to overcome his with your own diminished force.
Jujutsu developed among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon. Because striking against an armored opponent proved ineffective, practitioners learned that the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it. (Wikipedia)
Now before we go any further, I think it's important for Republicans to admit how badly outgunned they are by Obama on this Fiscal Cliff thing. Watching Boehner & Company march to the precipice is like watching the French aristocracy being led to the guillotine.
Let's face it, we are now living in a banana republic. We still have elections and a democratic system but so do Venezuela and Argentina. Hugo Chavez was just re-elected in Venezuela with 54 percent of the vote. Obama got 52 percent. Is there a difference? Does Venezuela have an entrepreneurial class? Certainly, but as far as the majority and the left-wing press are concerned, they are Public Enemy #1, ripe for exploitation. As in America they are outgunned and outvoted by a lumpen mass that worships the Great Leader and wants him take care of them.
Look at the African-American vote. Almost every black person in America voted for Obama. In some precincts of Philadelphia was 100 percent. Even black Republicans such as Colin Powell and Charles Barkley voted for Obama. Why? "It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand." African-Americans want to see one of their own succeed. They don't care if Obama wants to put Republicans in prison, they'll vote for him. Blacks only constitute 13 percent of the electorate but voting as a bloc they have tremendous leverage. Will Republicans ever be able to make a dent in this by talking about school choice or black unemployment? Forget about it. That deadly combination of charismatic leadership and socialist economics is just too powerful.
Then there's the wet-your-pants media and the intelligentsia personified by Chris Matthews. For them the narrative of American has become the Oppressors versus the Oppressed. Nobody ever made it on their own in America. They only made it by joining tribes of fellow blacks, women, Hispanics, minorities, gays, lesbians, what-have-you, to fight against -- who? Why the White Male Establishment, of course, personified by the Republican Party. Mitt Romney was by the standard of any other era a remarkable example of a family man, faithful to his wife, raising a passel of children, making a success of himself, creating thousands of jobs for others, giving to charities, performing unknown acts of kindness without bragging about them. Yet for huge chunks of the population, this not only didn't resonate but was genuinely repulsive. Why was he involved in the War on Women? Why wasn't one of his children gay? Where were his two drops of Indian blood?
So the intelligentsia has gone overboard for Obama and is going to stay that way. Next comes Hillary and the same thing all over again. And let us not fail to note that while Middle America may be in the doldrums from all this, the intelligentsia is prospering. Last week I happened to be in Washington and when I boarded the Metro was handed a copy of the Express, a giveaway owned by the Washington Post, which carried the follow front-page feature:
STRESSED? OVERWORKED? NOT HERE: Washington workers are happier than you might expect, a Post poll finds.
Now some news that may seem counterintuitive, given the stereotype of Washingtonians as dull, stressed-out workaholics: We are happy. We like our jobs. If we work more than 40 hours a week, we don't seem to mind. We love our full lives.…
In interviews with a number of these poll respondents, we found residents of all demographic and geographic stripes determined not to let their work dominate them. We found people focused on spending time with their kids, spouses, boats -- intent on finding jobs that are fulfilling and meaningful, yet not overwhelming.…
"People in Washington have jobs and roles that are highly energizing. These are mission jobs -- it's not like you're washing cars. There are lots of smart young people enjoying each other's company; that's as energizing as the job itself," [says] Jane Weizman of Towers Watson, a human relations consulting company in Arlington…
Wait, Money Can Buy Happiness?
Part of Washingtonians' contentment may stem from the area's prosperity. We asked in the Post poll to describe the state of their personal finances, 68 percent of adults here said excellent or good. In a nationwide Bloomberg poll, only 27 percent said excellent or good.
If Republicans were running a regime in which a small contingent in Washington prospered while the rest of the country wallowed in despair, would the press fail to take notice? Would this story have a different spin? Instead, the Express article was festooned with figures of bureaucrats superimposed with happy smiling faces.
Republicans are being branded as The Party of The Rich and Big Business. They are not. They are the party of small business and non-cosmopolitan Americans not yet enveloped by the web of Big Government. Big business doesn't care who is in power. They always adjust. Look at General Electric. It is prospering on subsidized windmills while CEO Jeff Immelt heads the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. True, such fellow travelers may ultimately find the Wrath of the People turned against them, but by that time it's too late. Sorry, fellas.
People who started small and worked their way up have been the backbone of American prosperity and what made this country great. John Boehner is right to go weepy-eyed about life in his father's tavern. But that kind of Horatio Alger story has been replace by the saga of the Oppressed Minority versus The Establishment, which of course is all those Horatio Algers grown up. Mitt Romney was actually heckled when he visited the White House the other week. With the economy poised for another miserable four years, Republicans are on the verge of becoming the Sinister But Powerful Minority that bedevils every country led by a Great Leader.
So here's where the ju-jitsu comes in. Use Obama's strength against him. As the President and Congress approach the Fiscal Cliff, Republicans should back off and say, "Alright, you're the President. You won the election. Go ahead and do whatever you want. Raise taxes, draw up more plans for big government, print more money, forget the deficit."
Rand Paul has suggested such an approach and I agree with him completely.
Sure the economy will go into another four-year tailspin. Sure we'll come to regard 7.5 percent unemployment as an improvement. But whatever happens, Obama will have to take the blame. Republicans may think that they're rescuing small businesses and protecting job creators by standing tall on taxes but they are only putting their heads in the noose. Whatever compromise they are able to wring out of the President will become the basis for blaming Republicans for the failures of the next four years.
The President has survived his first four years by blaming everything on George Bush. Now he is planning to blame the next four years on Congressional Republicans. The time has come to use his own heft against him. Let Obama go flying off the Fiscal Cliff all by himself. He will crash-land and when he does, Republicans will be left standing on the high ground.
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