The Party of Ideas

One of the strategic blunders that the GOP have committed during the health care negotiations will be the abandoning of the "Republican ideas" that were included in the bill. Those idea aren't Republican ideas anymore since every last member of the GOP caucus voted against them, which begs the question: what ideas do they have left? The Democrats held off on the left's most radical ideas -- the public option, single-payer, etc. -- but the GOP just abandoned their most centrist ideas, left them to the Dems and now are left standing with the most right wing policy ideas that are just as unfeasible as single payer and or a public option.

So what were the Republicans left with? Not much. There was no policy substance to any of the Republicans speeches on the House floor tonight. The GOP Congressmen could have been replaced with teabaggers ranting about "freedom" and "socialism" and other abstract concepts that don't do a damn thing about solving an actual problem.

The coming weeks are going to very telling about how the GOP moves forward from this lose. Are they going to continue their misinformation campaign or complain about a mythical "constitutional crisis" or at they going to get to work pushing an agenda that solves problems? There's no indication that they will choose they latter, which means the talk radio brigade will fill the vacuum with their predictable nonsense while the Dems enjoys a brief bump in popularity and publicity.