A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on July 30th, 2010 in US News

Chris Bowers, at Open Left, offered a supposed “Serious Question” today:

Does anyone here think that working to stop GOP from destroying the filibuster in 2005 was still a good idea?

Wasn’t that a mistake? Shouldn’t we have helped them instead?

Discuss.

It was also sent out on Twitter, and I responded thusly:

Yes. If Democrats knew how to message, they could paint the GOP as obstructionist and win even more seats. But they are too dumb

Within minutes, I received a Twitter reply that shows there is no seriousness involved and no discussion was ever wanted:

Oh yeah, better messaging would have led to huge Dem landslide in 2010, and / or forced GOP to cave on big policies. #um,no

Wow. Way to engage in an actual conversation. Before I go into detail, I’ll provide my two responses, just so anyone who actually reads this will have complete disclosure:
#1:

@openleft make a real argument. With 65 dems the gop could not filibuster.

and #2:

@openleft it isn’t about forcing gop to cave. Its about having a governing majority.

First, let’s deal with the issue of the filibuster…

The filibuster serves a real purpose in legislative proceedings. It prevents a mere majority from trampling over the concerns of a minority. It forces even a majority to build consensus – to appeal to the public and across partisan lines to forge agreements on important issues.

The problem that Democrats face in the Senate is threefold: 1) Republicans have locked arms in simply opposing everything put forth; 2) Their inept messaging lets Republicans frame things like the denial of unemployment benefits as a positive thing (or allows it to be ignored entirely); and 3) Their own partisanship is too weak, and their majority too small, to overcome Republican efforts. But not the filibuster.

And, yes, better messaging would have led to a very different political landscape in 2010. Democrats allowed Republicans to bottle up unemployment benefits for millions of Americans while our economic recovery was held in stasis by its “jobless” nature. What was the overriding news story? Lindsey Lohan going to jail. Under-regulation and under-enforcement of the oil industry led directly to the debacle in the Gulf. What is the news meme? “Is this Obama’s Katrina?” Republicans kill the campaign disclosure bill and Democrats’ messaging is no where to be found – meaning that Republicans can openly say that they are willing to denying corporations the ability to buy elections hurts Republicans and Democrats are too feeble – while holding a majority – to even put out a competing message.

There has been a complete lack of messaging and outreach on everything Democrats have undertaken since George W. Bush left office. Can anyone actually believe that Americans were protesting having the ability to see a doctor if they actually wanted to see one? Death panels – that was where the meme went. The Obama Cadillac of Messaging that drove him to the White House stayed in the garage. No one in the House or Senate has done anything, either.

So Democrats will likely lose this November, and they might even lose their majority in both Houses. But it won’t be because of the filibuster. It will be because they let a crippled and crumpled GOP dictate the public tone of the debate…while they stamped their feet and said, “But we have a majority!” and mocked anyone that pointed out their own failures.

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