Declaring victory

I wish I was smart enough to have written this.

I'm not buying the autopsy or the obituary. In the national exit poll, voters were split on health care. Unemployment is at nearly 10 percent. Democrats lost a lot of seats that were never really theirs, and those who voted against the bill lost at a higher rate than did those who voted for it. But if health care did cost the party its majority, so what? The bill was more important than the election.

I realize that sounds crazy. We've become so obsessed with who wins or loses in politics that we've forgotten what the winning and losing are about. Partisans fixate on punishing their enemies in the next campaign. Reporters, in the name of objectivity, refuse to judge anything but the Election Day score card. Politicians rationalize their self-preservation by imagining themselves as dynasty builders. They think this is the big picture.

But what if health reform doesn't stick, you ask? You'll be happy to know it has already stuck. Popular provisions, such as new policies on termination and those related pre-existing conditions, are all but unmovable. Those cows are out of the barn and no amount of happy talk by Renee Ellmers will change that one bit. Republicans cannot and will not repeal health reform. Even they are not that stupid.

Will Republicans revisit health care? Sure. Will they enact some changes to the program? Yes, and Democrats will help them. Every program needs revisions. Republicans will get other things, too: business tax breaks, education reform, more nuclear power, and a crackdown on earmarks. These are issues on which both parties can agree. Which is why, if you're a Democrat, you deal with them after you've lost your majority, not before.

It's funny, in a twisted way, to read all the post-election complaints that Democrats lost because they thought only of themselves. Even the chief operating officer of the party's leading think tank, the Center for American Progress, says Obama failed to convince Americans "that he knows their jobs are as important as his." That's too bad, because Obama, Pelosi, and their congressional allies proved just the opposite. They risked their jobs—and in many cases lost them—to pass the health care bill. The elections were a painful defeat, and you can argue that the bill was misguided. But Democrats didn't lose the most important battle of 2010. They won it.

And what about redistricting? Was winning healthcare reform in Washington worth the cost of losing a majority of Congressional seats? I could make that case.

James

PS I love that last paragraph by Saletan. Brilliant framing. Democrats did the right and moral thing, as well as it could be done in the face of GOP obstructionism. Republicans then shifted into "lie and buy," taking advantage of America's stupendously ignorant citizenry, and the deal was done. Democrats sacrificed their political job security to get something done for America. Republicans have never done anything like that, never will.