From Hotline On Call:
In the battle over federal spending for the remainder of this fiscal year, nearly two-thirds of the Republican operatives surveyed in this week’s National Journal Political Insiders Poll believe that it isn’t in their party’s interest to see a government shutdown, while most Democrats feel such a confrontation could benefit them.
First off – and this goes for you Democrat insiders, as well – one salient fact about the 2011 budget fight must be remembered: it is taking place in 2011, not in 1995. Secondly, the budget fight of 1995 played little, if any, role in determining who won in 1996.
Democrats have told themselves for years that the budget shut down of 1995 allowed Bill Clinton to cruise to victory in 1996. GOPers have told themselves the same thing. Actually what got Bill Clinton re-elected in 1996 was a booming economy, signing welfare reform and having Bob Dole as his opponent. The government shut down was a lot of inside-baseball stuff which didn’t have the least effect on any American’s day to day living. But, no matter – Democrats and Republicans have both talked themselves in to believing that if it weren’t for a short government shut down in 1995, Clinton would have lost in 1996.
Lost in all of this is the fact that the GOP also won in 1996 – holding on to their House majority in consecutive elections for the first time since the 1920’s. That, in and of itself, was a stunning achievement…especially in a year when a Democrat President was being rather convincingly re-elected. If the budget battle was enough to re-elect Clinton, it should have been enough to turn out the GOP majority…at least in the House. It didn’t. So, please stop believing false narratives about what happened in 1995.
But suppose, for the sake of argument, that the 1995 shut down did act as myth claims it did – what then? Well, you still have to remember that this is 2011, not 1995. Back in 1995 you had Rush Limbaugh, a few other talk radio hosts, National Review and a couple other magazines and that was it as far as alternative media. Honestly, how many of you out there had even so much as heard fo Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Bill O’Reilly back in 1995? I know darn well you had never heard of Pajamas Media, National Review Online, Powerline, Instapundit and 10,000 other conservative and libertarian outlets back then because they didn’t exist. In other words, if we lost in 1996 because of the shut down in 1995, then we lost because the narrative was controlled by the other side…they had it in the MSM that mean, nasty and cruel Republicans were trying to starve granny while sweet, loving and kind Clinton was trying to save her. In 2011, that narrative will be tried, but it won’t work because there are enough alternate voices out there to expose it for the stupid lie that it is.
What this means, GOP Insiders, is that you’re not alone out there – no one is asking you to walk the plank. In fact, all the plank walking has already been done for you…we, the GOP base and the TEA Partiers already did it for you in 2010 and continue to do it in 2011. And if you show a bit of spine and actually do as we want, we’ll do it even more in 2012. So, seriously, grow a pair – or, if you can’t, then borrow some from a TEA Partier. Most of them have enough for two or three Insider types…even the lady TEA Partiers tend to have more testicular fortitude than Insiders…so, fret not, we’ve got plenty to go around…all you have to do is work up the gumption to just do as you’re told. We’ll do the rest.
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