Sorry, my Tea Party friends, but not only is "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" massively unpopular but - brace yourselves - Mitch McConnell is proving himself to be a man of the people.
The shutdown handwriting was already on the wall. The only new development is that Mitchie The Kid is carrying out the public's wishes:
American voters oppose 69% – 23%, including 56% – 36% percent among Republicans, shutting down the federal government in the dispute over funding Planned Parenthood, according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today.
By a smaller 52% – 41%, voters oppose cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood, the independent Quinnipiac University Poll finds. There is a large gender gap as men support a fund cutoff 49% – 44%, while women oppose the cutoff 60% – 34%. Opposition to the cutoff is 82% – 12% among Democrats and 56% – 37% among independent voters. Republicans support the cutoff 71% – 25%. [emphasis added]
And, of course, Planned Parenthood cannot be defunded without defunding Medicaid itself, like that's ever going to happen. So that, as they say, is that.
Tea Partiers need to stop obsessing so much about "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" and realize that this is a long-term, multifront, ruinously uphill struggle that we're almost certain to lose, and that the coin of the realm is not coercion, but persuasion. And given the Planned Parenthood Cannibalism film series and the fact that most Americans have never heard of it, much less seen a single installment, even that is going to be a (no pun intended) death march.
Pace yourselves, my friends. And stop making enemies out of allies. As I keep saying, we're all in this together, whether y'all like it or not. Or, put another way, if you want to "FIGHT!," trying fighting smart for a change.
No comments:
Post a Comment