You Can’t Negotiate With A Terrorist

I want $20 million dollars, a bus to the airport, and a fully gassed jet with a crew!   Famous Last Words

Greetings, my readers and dear, dear friends. Can we talk for a minute? I want to ask you a question. Put me on one side of a table, and put yourself on the opposite side of the table. Now, ask yourself this, Why would I negotiate with you?

It’s not a stupid question, but it’s one of the simplest questions in the world, and one of the easiest to answer. We negotiate for one reason and one reason only. We negotiate because we each want something, but we realize that we can’t both get exactly what we want. And so we sit down at opposite sides of the table, with a couple of pints of Guinness and a bowl of beer nuts between us, and we horse trade. We each decide what we cannot live without, and what we can afford to give up, and we strike a deal.

And this is exactly why, less than two weeks into his Presidency, President Joe Biden has no choice but to drop the hammer and start the reconciliation process to ram through his $1.9 trillion Covid relief package. Because You can’t negotiate with a terrorist. And that’s what the GOP has become. Remember, a successful negotiation means that each party wants something, and is willing to trade off in order to get it.

But that’s the whole problem. The Republican party doesn’t actually want anything! They just want to stop the Democrats from getting anything that they want. And this is not some throwback to the Trump regime, this goes back to Mitch McConnell exclusively.

If this negotiation had taken place 20 years ago, I have no doubt whatsoever that a successful deal would be struck. An honest Senate Minority Leader would have sat across from the President and said, Fine, I’ll give you your $1.9 trillion relief bill, but with a $12 an hour minimum wage. And when we get back in here to talk infrastructure, I want your word that the bill will include a minimum $75 billion fund for harbor and port infrastructure upgrades and improvements, since I have 5 ports in my state. And so it would be.

But on January 20th, 2009, Mitch McConnell single handedly changed the Republican party. In a secret, closed door meeting with his closes allies in the House and Senate, McConnell espoused his firm desire to make Obama a one term President. And the only way to do that was not through legislation. But instead through nonstop obstruction. It was only by making Obama look weak, feckless, and ineffective that the GOP could turn the country against his leadership in 2012. And in doing so, McConnell stripped the GOP of any standing ethics, ideology, or governing principles. They came to exist only to object and obstruct anything that Obama and the Democrats tried to do.

Remember, in order for a successful negotiation to take place, each side has to want something, and be willing to trade to get it. And the only thing that the Republicans want is to exercise raw political power, and to increase it by whatever means possible, whenever possible.

Drop the hammer Mr. President. You tried. You brought 10 of the GOP Senate Rethugs into your office and gave them a respectful hearing. And their message was the same as it was in 2009, when you were Vice President. Our way or the highway, pal. The same stale, delaying tactics of 2009, meant to make you look weak and ineffective. They won’t negotiate, they’ll inly stall and try to erode your base support for what everybody wants.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to check out President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange . They comprise a pretty much daily report from the front of the 2016 GOP primaries, as well as the general election

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