Modern Politics: A Blueprint

Rick Perlstein points out the current dynamic at play with the Democrats and Republicans, where the Democrats are too afraid to play hard ball and thus suffer accordingly. Here it is in short:

The vector worked, and works, like this:

(a) A mountebank (i.e., Rush Limbaugh) teaches his millions of followers that everything the president says is a priori a lie;

b) The mainstream media that acts as if anything his millions of followers believe is a priori deserving of respect as heartland folk wisdom (note the cover article lionizing Limbaugh in this week's Newsweek);

(c) The president unilaterally renders himself constitutionally incapable of breaking the chain between (a) and (b), such that, (d), the assumption that Obama raised taxes when he really lowered them becomes hegemonic for a majority of the electorate, and even a large plurality of Democrats.

Q.E.D.: Governing has become impossible.