Are Republican Leaders Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?
With a good part of the federal government closed for business, the pathologies driving it are too obvious to ignore. The diagnosis begins with the fact that there is no partisan argument this time about overall federal spending. The White House and congressional Democrats have simply accepted the arbitrary cuts of the sequester process, despite evidence that they’re slowing the economy. So instead, the rightwing of the House GOP is holding normal government operations hostage to a variety of demands tied to the Affordable Care Act.
Now, Obamacare has been a central focus of the Tea Partiers since 2010, when its passage helped elect a number of them to Congress. But three years later, their continuing single-mindedness about those reforms looks like a pathological obsession. Too strong? Their threats to close down Washington unless the President agrees to sacrifice his signature achievement — and their confidence that they can bend him to their will — have been unaffected by not only the 2012 elections, but also the prevailing consensus that their strategy will cost the GOP even more in 2014.
This week, the pathology has spread to the Republican leadership. Since Tea Party members make up less than one-quarter of the House GOP and an even smaller share of the Senate, they always need support from their more moderate colleagues and Party leaders to carry out their threats. Those leaders and colleagues have long argued publicly against the Tea Party strategy — that is, until this past weekend. After months of being held hostage themselves to Tea Party threats of insurrection and primary challenge, House Speaker Boehner, Senate Minority Leader McConnell and most of their associates have now identified with their captors and adopted their worldview. In short, they’re suffering from a political version of “Stockholm Syndrome.” If they don’t recover quickly, much of the national government could remain closed for a long time.