If Boehner loses, do progressives lose too?

[Proud Public Servant]

There's a really good read in Salon today, an interview with Doug Heywood of Left Business Observer, about elites losing control of the GOP and the country. The whole thing is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by its final paragraph:

They (Wall Street) will just begin to see the Republican Party as an unreliable partner — they’ve caused nothing but turmoil, and they may have outlived their usefulness. They were very useful in getting tax cuts and deregulation, but the Democrats are now pretty reliable on that agenda — not tax cuts, but deregulation and business-friendly policies and austerity and budget-cutting and all that sort of stuff that business interests like. It may just make the Democrats look more and more like a saner, more reliable partner. And people who are not allied with Big Business, the traditional Democratic electoral base, will have nowhere else to go.

Gotta say, I've been having the same thoughts -- though I think if that happens you'd ultimate see a whithering away of the GOP, followed by the Dems splitting into two parties. And I'm not sure that would be so bad.

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/09/tea_partys_shutdown_lunacy_avenging_the_surrender_of_the_south/

[frazzled]

1. Progressives lose when crazy Republicans block everything

We lose on nominations to agencies across the board that do important work; we lose on nomination to judicial positions; we lose on the economy (there would have been a jobs bill by now, and infrastructure and R&D in technology and science).

With the obstructionist and lunatic Republican Party progressives lose everything.

So, no. We are not worse off if Boehner loses. This is a crazy argument from Salon--that we should perhaps hang on to these nutters so that businesses won't start supporting Democrats. That is as crazy as anything Ted Cruz has ever said, frankly. Big business indeed has its problems and has too much influence in certain areas -- but it is not interested in the other half of the stuff that progressives want. In fact, it's probably friendly to it. So stop it.

That's a nutty argument.

[Proud Public Servant]

3. I don't know if that's their argument

I think their just calling attention to the fact that an unintended by-product of the batshit crazinesss of the House GOP (plus Cruz) may be that Wall Street abandons the GOP for the Dems, where they will naturally form allainces with DLC types and work within the party to marginalize figures who oppose them (like Elizabeth Warren). It's an interesting hypothesis.

[DonCoquixote]

2. It's tempting

To think that if we just let things go to pot, that the masses will start to listen to progressives and finally admit they fucked up. That is why SOME who call themselves progressives actively root for things to collapse.

Bad news, we tried that in 2000, and no, it did not help move the country to the left. As long as the funding to GOP goons flows, and the Media gladly plays the role of whore, we cannot assume anything. We need to show that yes, we have real, practical, proven SOLUTIONS.