Morning Jay: Obama's Tammany-on-the-Potomac

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

Jay Cost

2/10/12

 

Some people were surprised by the Obama administration’s ruling on contraceptive provision by religious institutions. I was not one of those people.

 

A cursory review of politics in the contemporary Democratic party reveals one inviolable rule: never defy the feminists. Consider that, for all of Bill Clinton’s post-1994 triangulation – the balanced budget, the Defense of Marriage Act, the V-Chip – he vetoed multiple bills banning partial birth abortion. Consider that African Americans tend to be more pro-life than white voters overall, yet the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is one of the most pro-abortion voting blocs in the entire Congress. Finally, consider that Bart Stupak walked away with nothing from the high stakes battle over abortion in Obamacare. Why? Because the feminists within the Democratic caucus promised they would bolt, and they weren't kidding. That's just the price of doing business in the Democratic party.

 

(Snip)

 

So unsurprisingly, Obama has been a very dutiful steward of the interests of his party’s clients. From the stimulus to the auto bailout to cap-and-trade to Dodd-Frank to Obamacare to the jobs bill to the Keystone Pipeline to birth control, his public policy has always been crafted with an eye to keeping the party’s core groups on board. And as far as everybody else is concerned, it’s like Tom Donohue of the Chamber of Commerce said during the Obamacare battle: “If you don’t get in this game, you’re on the menu!” That's the machine ethos in a nutshell: once we buy off half-plus-one of the electorate, we won't lift a finger for you. If you don't like it, move to the suburbs.

 

(Snip)