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Maybe it's because I honestly don't know what to say. Maybe the crazy coming from the Right has been a bit overwhelming. Or maybe Sotomayor's credentials simply speak for themselves.
Hilzoy, as usual, has her finger on my pulse:
As Hilzoy notes, it would be wonderful if there was a reasonable opposition party in the U.S. But it would also be nice if I got a unicorn for my birthday.Both Gandhi and the Civil Rights movement made brilliant use of the following method: you do something right, which you suspect might lead your opponents to do something wrong. If you are right about them, they discredit themselves, without your having to lift a finger. If you're wrong, you are pleasantly surprised. But you do not have to do anything wrong or underhanded yourself, nor do you in any way have to hope that your opponents are bad people.
2 comments:
Obama is a master of this strategy. He let Hillary Clinton hang herself, he let John McCain hang himself, and now he's letting the GOP hang themselves, which they are doing in splendid fashion.
What a lot of people have been saying that I agree with is that the Obama folks have played the GOP into a corner. By nominating Sotomayor, they will get their moderate liberal justice, and the GOP has to choose between pissing off the base by confirming or pissing off the Hispanic population they're trying to make inroads with in the Southwest by voting against her. As SGWhite might say, the GOP is playing checkers and the President is playing Chess.
Church. But I don't think Obama has backed the GOP into a corner at all. This is the path they've chosen. They forced themselves into the corner.
They've given the megaphone to people who have responsibility to no one other than their listening and viewing audiences. And GOP leaders can't really afford to take a hard line against the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity or even Liddy, God forbid.
At this point, I think the GOP base could care less about cultivating a lasting relationship with Latinos. It's all lip service.
Which is great if all they care about is running school boards in rural Alabama. But that won't work so well in places like Florida and Texas in the long run.
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