What the GOP can learn from Democrats about how to govern.

[riqster]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/11/republicans_2014_what_the_gop_can_learn_from_democrats_about_how_to_get.single.html

Interesting article from Slate (hard to believe I said that in a sentence) from a repub (even harder to believe I said
THAT). Snips:

The Republican and Democratic coalitions are both political parties in the same way that whales and lemurs are both mammals, or that Finnish and Hungarian are both Finno-Ugric languages. Though they share some very broad characteristics, they are profoundly different. Our failure to understand the differences between the two parties sows confusion and resentment, so I'd like to clear things up.

The beauty of the way Democrats approach politics is that their willingness to accept half a loaf means that they can keep making incremental gains even when they appear to be “losing.” Lane Kenworthy, a sociologist at the University of California–San Diego and the author of Social Democratic America, puts it beautifully: “Small steps and the occasional big leap, coupled with limited backsliding, will have the cumulative effect of significantly increasing the breadth and generosity of government social programs.” That is, conservatives can try to nibble at the edges of new social programs, but they'll rarely succeed in rolling them back completely.

Republicans are rarely this slick. They’re far more likely than Democrats to be true believers who put ideology above all else and who struggle to achieve their concrete goals. They struggle because unlike ideological progressives, ideological conservatives believe that most people already agree with them, and that when they fail to win a particular policy fight, it’s because something shady and underhanded is going on. The fact that there are far more conservatives in America than liberals is, in a funny way, a liability for the right. Liberals understand that they can’t win without moderates; conservatives will only concede this unfortunate fact reluctantly, if at all. The result is that Republicans spend much of their time banging their heads against whichever wall happens to be close by.

Not buying all of it, but it's interesting and worth a read.

[Skink]

1. ...

[Thinkingabout]

2. What do they have to learn, everything a good and decent office holder should know and do.

To have understand if they truly want to clean off the social networks to increase the minimum wage to a liveable one, to provide health care at a lower cost to all, to stop their hate of others. This would be a start.

[JoePhilly]

3. The GOP does not do governance.

They intend to rule.

[riqster]

4. A very good point.