What if the President and Democrats simply gave up?

If they decided to sign what ever bill the Republican gave them to sign, would the Republicans be happy? I don't think so. It seems to me the Republicans don't want a plan to work. They want to make Obama a one term president.

Killing any bill the Repugs come up with.

Plus the Pres is doing a good job of showing them up as extremists.

Either we do hit financial Armaggedon after August 2nd, or we don't. If we do, I expect Democratic congresscritters and the President to do anything necessary to end it, because the Tea Party certainly won't. If we don't, then the TP will say that the President was engaging in scare tactics, and will have the upper hand on whatever takes place after that.

When you're in the same boat on the open sea with a complete idiot, you have to do whatever you have to do to get back to shore, and not be swallowed up by the ocean because you didn't placate the idiot.

:hi:

They do have an agenda, ways they want to transform society, but at the core of their culture seems to be the need to hate. They need an enemy, perhaps with which to contrast themselves so they can seem "pure" by their standards, perhaps to keep their troops focused and all marching together. So we'd end up even more quickly with their kind of society and they'd still be on the attack. (Note that I think they accept the concept of "society" only insofar as it can be the "us" in "us against them".)

I guess I think that the RW, at its core, is primarily oriented toward destruction. I'm not sure they always realize this. They don't want to make things work, they want to tear something down. I suspect the cold war kept them out of trouble domestically, to a certain extent, but now they don't have a clearly-defined external enemy. I wish we could trick them into thinking we were at war with martians, or something. :D Let them displace their hate on some imagined foe, worry less about breaking things at home.