Politics as Usual

Well, so much for a supermajority. After the Republican victory in Massachusetts today, the Healthcare bill looks to be in trouble. According to a NY Times article, this leaves the Democrats with two options: find support from Republicans, or try to pass the Senate bill as is in the House. It will be interesting to see where this ends up. While I’m disheartened at the potential loss of healthcare reform power, I am unsurprised that the Republicans rallied and shifted the momentum. Any time that one political party is in the driver’s seat the other party has the advantage of playing the blame game and portraying the political scene as one of threat to the country. The perception of threat and culpability for all current woes is a powerful motivator for voters, and that was displayed today.
I think that this has less to do with political scapegoating and tactics as it does with the structure of the system itself. In a two-party system, there is a tendency to find an equilibrium point, and the self-correcting nature of politics through the mechanisms of blame and fear is inherent in the structure. This has positive and negative consequences, including moderate positions on issues, balanced discussions, but also an inability to make sweeping changes when there is no immediate threat of danger. Healthcare and government regulation of business and the environment are two areas where we are failing to deal with slowly growing problems that will have (and are having) serious implications for our economic and ecological wellbeing.
I’m afraid that it will either take a squeeze through the house of representatives or crippling compromises to get the healthcare bill through now, and neither one will be any help to President Obama in this politically precarious time. Best of luck to you, Mr. President.