Purposeful Dysfunction

For a significant faction of the Republican caucus, compromise is not an option.  They would rather accomplish nothing than compromise.

And the battle isn't over when a bill does pass and gets signed into law.  Republican senators pressured the National Football League to not participate in a campaign to inform Americans about how to sign up for health insurance.  Why?

The more dysfunctional the health care law is, the more Republicans can claim to have been right about it all along.  It's the same strategy that is at work in GOP efforts to underfund the financial reform law or a host of federal agencies:  render government ineffective by not giving it adequate resources to do its job, then argue for more cuts on the grounds that government is ineffective.

Update (July 10):  Greg Sargent points out that the refusal of Republicans to compromise means they are willing to harm people and do damage to the United States to get what they want.

Update (July 12):  An editorial about the Republican refusal to govern and Eugene Robinson writes about the party of "no".  From the New York Times:

[T]he extremists who dominate the Republican majority in the House of Representatives made it clear how little interest they have in the future prosperity of their country, or its reputation for fairness and decency.

Update (July 21):  Mark Sumner calls the Republican strategy sabotage.

Update (July 26):  Eugene Robinson says split government--along with Republican obstruction--may be the new normal.

Update (August 1):  Paul Krugman reminds us "that the madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time".

Update (August 16):  Alex Seitz-Wald on the false equivalence of the far right and far left.  One side actually rejects the importance of governing.

Update (September 27):  Michael Tomasky foresees the end of the Republicans as people start to realize the GOP is not just the party of obstruction, but rather of destruction.

Update (October 2):  The Washington Post editorializes that the House Republican leadership has failed to serve the country.  A minority of assholes gets to decide to shut down the federal government.

Update (October 12):  David Frum describes seven ways Republicans are hurting their party. Amanda Marcotte argues that the magical thinking of the Christian right cause them to worry more about imaginary threats such as Obamacare rather than very real threats such as a government default.

Update (February 15, 2014):  Kim Messick views the essential current political conflict as between the Republicans who accept "modernism" and the Republicans who reject "reality-based" thinking.

Update (February 16, 2014):  Fareed Zakaria makes the case that Republican obstructionism alone is to blame for scuttling immigration reform.

Update (October 22, 2014):  Simon Maloy reiterates the fact that the Republicans are the obstacle to getting anything done in Washington, D.C.