WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014 |

THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS

9A

COMMENTARYI

Senate majority changes; Democrats in denial

dysfunction is the same over midterm election
valid argument that the pipeline poses less of an environmental threat than putting the
stuff in trucks and rail tankers
and hauling it south through
cities and countryside. The
approval bill now making its
way through the Congress is
one designed to inuence the
outcome of the Senate race in
Louisiana between incumbent
Democrat Mary Landrieu,
and Republican Rep. Bill
Cassidy. Both have supported
the legislation.
It would be easy to assign
much of the blame for Americas governmental dysfunction to intransigent conservatives, who at times seem
more like anarchists who desire not merely smaller central control but none whatsoever. But that would be to
ignore the chief executives
inability to connect not only
with the lawmakers he must
depend on, but also w ith
much of the electorate, his
two triumphs at the polls notwithstanding. Disappointment would be the byword
for those who took heart in
his promises only to realize
later that his personality and
experience were woefully inadequate for the inside game
of politics.
So if you have any hope that
dysfunction is about to end,
and that the sun will rise tomorrow on a more reasonable
and less reactionary Washington, you should write your
congressman and your president and see where that gets
you.
Dan Thomasson is an op-ed columnist for McClatchy-Tribune
and a former vice president of
Scripps Howard Newspapers.
Readers can email him at
thomassondan@aol.com.

Obamas forceful approach

appeals to the other electorate

WASHINGTON
ouse Speaker John
Boehner has said that
P resident Oba ma
would poison the well for
legislative action on immigration reform by unilaterally issuing executive orders. But
how can you poison a well that
has already been lled with
partisan cyanide?
Obamas Republican critics
say that his
forcef ul ap proach on immigration, climate change
and net neutralit y show
he isnt paying attention
to what the
E.J.
voters said in
DIONNE the midterm
elections.
In truth, he
is paying close attention to the
feelings of a very important
group of voters the tens of
millions who supported him
two years ago, but were so
dispirited that they stayed
away from the polls on Nov. 4.
They are hoping Obama will
show them that political engagement is worth the effort.
Republicans did a brilliant
job in the campaign playing
on the idea that Obama is
weak, passive and without a
game plan. That was the notso-hidden meaning of all their
television ads about the Islamic State, Ebola and immigration. So Obama has made
clear that he wont be weak
and passive, and that he has a
game plan.
On immigration, Boehner
has lost all credibility to claim
he wants to act in a bipartisan
way. In his heart of hearts,
might he like to pass a bill?
Sure. But the speakers heart
is not whats at stake here. A
willingness to take heat from
the right wing of his caucus to
pass a bill is what matters.
And this is something he has
shown, again and again, that
he just wont do.
On June 27, 2013, by a genuinely bipartisan vote of 68-32,

The message is that

some executive
actions are great, but
others are
unconstitutional and
whichever way Obama
goes must be wrong.
the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform.
Boehner kept sending signals
that he wanted to act. So
Obama waited. And waited.
And waited. And nothing happened.
After an election in which
so many Republican candidates took a hard line on immigration, can anyone really
believe that the House (or,
for that matter, the new Republican Senate) will be eager to act? In the meantime,
Obama, having promised executive orders to solve at
least part of the problem,
held back to try to help incumbent Democratic Senate
candidates in red states. A
lot of good that did.
By taking action now, Obama
could even change the Republican calculus. Instead of burying a bill through countless
delays, Republicans will have
to respond to concrete decisions that could help actual human beings perhaps as
many as 6 million undocumented immigrants and
also a tech industry that wants
visas for the highly skilled.
And the notion that Obama
is spoiling a moment of exquisitely nonpartisan opportunity in Washington is laughable. Did a nyone not ice
incoming Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnells
victory speech on election
night when he spoke as if the
election werent over? What
the current crowd in Washington is offering is making us
weaker, both at home and
abroad, he said, adding that
Obama and the Democrats
regularly blamed somebody
else when their policies didnt

work out.
The ink was barely dry on
Obamas climate change accord with China when McConnell pronounced himself
particularly distressed by a
deal that he said requires the
Chinese to do nothing at all
for 16 years, which rather
oversimplies matters.
McConnell is free to say
whatever he wa nt s . But
please, lets not pretend that
it is Obama who is poisoning
anybody s well. Dit to for
Boehner. He seemed to give
comfort to the impeachers he
is trying to discourage when
he said of executive orders
that havent even been issued
that he was determined to
stop the president from violating his own oath of ofce
and violating the Constitution.
This, by the way, is the same
Boehner who, during the border crisis in July, released a
statement with the rest of the
House Republican leadership
declaring: There are numerous steps the president can
and should be taking right
now, without the need for congressional action, to secure
our borders ...
The message is that some
executive actions are great
but others are unconstitutional and whichever way
Obama goes must be wrong.
This year, an estimated 36.3
percent of eligible voters
the lowest turnout since 1942
gave Republicans their
overwhelming victory. Many
of the nearly two-thirds of voters who didnt show up (they
happen to be disproportionately young and Latino) had
given up on Obama and the
Democrats getting anything
done.
Yes, Washington may again
be engulfed in partisan warfare. But at least this time, it
will be over things that are actually happening.
E.J. Dionne is a columnist for
The Washington Post Writers
Group. Readers can email him
at ejdionne@washpost.com.

enial is an interesting
concept. In its basic
form, it is a person attempting to deceive himself
or herself.
The act of self-deception
becomes even more intriguing considering that in order
to deceive, a person must also
know the truth. So a person
who knows the truth tells a lie
to protect that person from a
truth he or she already knows.
Its sort of like cheating at solitaire or when a person plays
himself or herself in chess.
Why do people engage in
self-deception? They lie to
themselves because pain
avoidance is the strongest human instinct of all. And right
now, the truth is really painful
for liberals and Democrats.
So theyre telling themselves that the Nov. 4 election
wasnt really a rejection of the
ideas they stand for. They
float a number of theories
that explain why they got it
right but still got it right.
Turnout is one. Yes, it was
low, and thats normal for a
midterm election. Americans
still think of voting for the president as something akin to voting for a king, and most people
like the idea of being able to
choose who is in charge.
So midterm elections tend
to bring out people who understand how the government actually works. Theyve learned
through education or selfeducation that the legislative
branch carries as much weight
as the executive and the judiciary.
They also understand that
in our kind of government, responsibility is supposed to be
shared. And individual citizens actually bear some of the
responsibility. Voting isnt entertainment or a game to be
played when its fun. Its a duty
or responsibility, kind of like
work, where people are obligated to show up day after
day even when theyre not interested in their job. If they
dont, they dont get paid.
People who understand
that voting is a responsibility
show up year after year even
when there seems little reason to vote. And like it or not,
those people vote Republican more often than not.
Sometime in the middle
of Election Day, my daughter called me to go over the
races on the ballot. Not only
did she want to vote in an
election where the state
races were pretty much
foregone conclusions and
there was only one really
competitive legislative race,
but she wanted to be informed, as well. She called
me even though Id written
a column expressing my belief that a shift in the balance of power wouldnt
make a lot of difference.
My son turned 18 shortly
before the election. Even
though he doesnt have his
own car, he made arrangements with us to use one of
our cars and went to the Board
of Registrars ofce and registered. Then he showed up
and voted on Election Day.
All four members of my
immediate family voted
even though we had very
little to excite us. Thats because were not motivated
by emotion. We believe its
our responsibility, regardless of the stakes or whether
we believe our candidate
has a chance to win.
Democrats arent lying to
themselves about that. They
are lying to themselves

when they ref use to be lieve that

they failed to
present ideas
that mot i vated Democratic leani ng voters.
ROBERT Those voters
DEWITT sat at home
because they
d id nt f i nd
voting entertaining or exciting that day. It wasnt just
about who voted. It was about
who didnt vote.
Theyre also lying to themselves when they refuse to
believe that even those voters
understand failed leadership.
The last two years have been
a series of disasters directly
related to the direction in
which P resident Barack
Obama took the country.
Theyre also lying to themselves about why they couldnt
motivate those voters. For
four years, theyve spun the
narrative that Republicans in
Congress have blocked and
obstructed progress. For the
most part, the news media
have been complicit in advancing that narrative.
The problem is that American voters, as dumb as Jonathan Gruber may think they
are, inherently understand
that obstruction isnt onesided. Moreover, they also understand that blocking bad
ideas may not be progress but
it may prevent retrograde
movement. A car that rolls
backward down a hill might
be in motion but it isnt getting
closer to the destination. A
chock behind the wheel isnt
always a bad thing.
Finally, it seems as if Democrats think they are entitled to Republicans committing political suicide. Theyre
daring Republicans to shut

down the government or impeach the president. Please

excuse them for learning
from past mistakes.
Republicans have learned
that, for the most part, the
news media will frame debates using Democratic talking points as the standard.
There are some battles that
are lost before they are begun and government shutdowns are one of them.
As for President Obama, as
Christmas approaches Republicans should heed the words
of Ebenezer Scrooge in
Charles Dickens A Christmas Ca rol. W hen Bob
Cratchit asked Scrooge if he
should have the rms sign repainted to remove Jacob Marleys name after Marleys
death, Scrooge said, No, time
will erase it at no cost to us.
The same is true of Obama.
Try as they might, Democrats cant deny term limits.
Robert DeWitt is senior writer for The Tuscaloosa News.
Readers can email him at
rober t.dewitt@tuscaloo sanews.com.

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ernment as leverage to stop

Obamas plan
to prevent the
deportation of
millions of illegal aliens
through his
executive
DAN
power are ofTHOMASSON fering a shortterm solution
t h a t wo u l d
keep the shutdown at bay until
early next year when they assume control of the Senate.
Their own version of immigration reform seems to be
simply ramping up southern
border security with no steps
toward amnesty even for those
who have been here for years.
The GOPs hard-nose wing
wants the road ahead for a
whole batch of undocumented
workers to lead straight back
to where they came from, no
matter their productivity. The
motto of this approach appears to be only get the
(chose your expletive) out!
Complicating any sort of detente between Capitol Hill and
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is
the presidents decision to
veto anything he doesnt think
advances his agenda, whatever that is. His rst use of
this power may be a bill approving the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil
from Canadas tar sands to the
Gulf of Mexico. Having indicated some time ago that he
favored the pipeline, but having done nothing to implement it, he now apparently has
decided it is an environmental
threat that neednt be risked
because the oil would be
meant for overseas. It wouldnt
help the nations petroleum
situation a tad.
This, of course, ignores the

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P U B L I X M Y S T E RY C O U P O N

WASHINGTON
f you think governmental
dysfunction has been alleviated by the midterm
elections, think again. As the
Republicans prepare to take
control of both houses of the
Congress, the same elements
that have produced gridlock
between the legislature and
the presidency remain in
place despite pledges from
key players to try to make
things work for a change.
President Barack Obama,
for his part, seems determined to take immigration reform into his own hands with
executive action. The GOP
conservatives in the House
and Senate are threatening
once again to shut down the
government in an attempt to
dissuade the president.
All this prompts most Americans to utter in unison, Give
us a break, for crying out loud!
Well, at least it ought to.
Caught in between the hardliners in their caucuses and
Obamas determination to
make his last two years as a
meaningful politician less of a
disaster are House Speaker
John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose step up in power
may be the consummate cautionary tale about being careful
what you wish for. By the Election Day in 2016, McConnell
may be struggling for his sanity.
His (and Boehners) pledge
(if it can be called that) to keep
their partys radicals from
pushing the stop-work button
may already be so strained
that it will become just another
historic note of failed good intentions even before the new
majority takes over.
Rightists who want to use
the funding of the federal gov-

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