Mark America

The Betrayal of False Compromise

The talking points prevailing in the wake of the debt ceiling debacle would have you believe that this deal had been a compromise, and the best for which conservatives and Tea Party ought to have hoped possible.  At the end of the debates lies a truth concealed by all the fluff:  There was no compromise in this debate; one side prevailed, but it wasn’t the Tea Party.  In a betrayal reminiscent of the movie Braveheart, when the Scottish nobility deserted the field, abandoning William Wallace to defeat, Republican leaders likewise abandoned the Tea Party, not for compromise, but in infamy by betrayal and surrender for the sake of their own hides.

Willing to risk nothing, the Republican establishment has become an increasingly intractable part of the Beltway Axis.  Like the nobles in the movie, they’re taking their special privileges and carve-outs in exchange for their complicity and silence.  For an outcome to be considered a compromise implies that both parties to the exchange ought to have obtained an equal measure of consideration for their parts, in trade for a yielding of approximately equal value.  There can be no compromise where one’s position isn’t ultimately advanced, and any examination of the much-ballyhooed Budget Control Act reveals that for their part, the Republicans accepted complete capitulation with a few face-saving bones thrown their way.  None should be so foolish as to accept these bones for anything other than an insult, and the injury done by this act will exceed by many times the few strings of rancid gristle left to the Tea Party are more cause for anger and despair than for celebration.

Let’s consider what this bill has wrought:

• A new ‘Super-Congress’ that ultimately answers only to the establishment
• A total of $917 billion in ‘cut’s the vast bulk of which occur some time in the future
• A failure to sufficiently reduce deficit spending – credit rating downgrades now seem inevitable
• A failure to first pass a Balanced Budget Amendment out of both houses
• A failure to make anything other than token cuts to FY 2012 or 2013
• A virtual guarantee on the expiration of the so-called “Bush Tax Cuts” in January 2013(after the election)
• A complex process of ‘triggers’ that allows politicians to shrug their shoulders and disclaim responsibility
• A guarantee that for at least two years, Barack Obama will continue to spend your money and your future

Now, I’d like to contrast this with what was gained, in exchange, as the nobles quickly scurry from the field of battle, trumpeting “victory” as the advancing tide of Longshanks‘ Army descends upon us to put an end to our ‘uprising’:

• A vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment with too many loopholes and no guarantee of passage
• More than $7 Trillion in additional debt
• A greater proportion of the budget going to service that debt, and at higher rates
• A brief respite from the harangue that Republicans hate people

This is what the Republican ‘nobles’ quit the fight to achieve by way of so-called  ‘compromise’?  Why bother? Why not simply slap the shackles and chains upon us themselves?  For all intents and purposes, that is precisely what they have done, because this new law does nothing to immediately begin the process of changing our course to something closer to sustainability.  This bill does nothing to preserve the value of the dollar or the credit-worthiness of our government.  This bill is a disaster unmitigated by the bare bones we’re being fed as scrap from the establishment’s table.  Those in the Republican leadership in DC,  who call this bill a ‘compromise,’ are simply concealing what it really is:  Complete betrayal, and unconditional surrender.

Now, there are those conservatives who are still looking for some scrap upon which to rest the premise that this ‘compromise’ has been anything but a disaster, but the proof will be in the final tally of its effects, and from any angle I view it, the alleged benefits are more smoke and mirrors, and the detriments are vast and self-defeating.

There can be no compromise on first principles without an effective surrender.  In this case, what the Republican leadership has accomplished is to deliver the Tea Party and conservatives to the adversary.  For this monstrous betrayal, what have establishment Republicans received?  For all intents and purposes, even they have received nothing, except some temporary restraints in the vile language ordinarily hurled against them.  The target of that defamation is now almost solely the Tea Party, or Sarah Palin.

Compromise offers a potential good, when that’s what it is, but when it’s mere surrender dressed up as ‘pragmatism,’ you had better stand opposed to it.   In this entire miserable battle, only one politician of national prominence continued to rail against these so-called ‘compromises’, and she was berated by Republican operatives and leftists in the media for her trouble.  She warned and cajoled and prompted and yet, at the end of the day, they ignored her, and you.  Sarah Palin stood in as William Wallace in this debate, and the turncoats in the GOP did their level best to deliver her to Edward the Longshanks.  The good news is that we and she survived the engagement, but a new battle is looming.  Don’t leave her on the field as she’s the only prospective presidential candidate who’s stepped onto the field without reservation.  She’s defended your honor and your good name.  It’s time to return the favor.  It’s time to begin to rally to those who dare to put their names at risk, because such people are few, and we know who they are, so if we believe in all that we claim, it’s long past time that we at least stand up to say so.