Fix and Flank
For the politics of the moment, a military metaphor. (This may be a bit a of a reach. But what the heck. It's Saturday.) To wit:
"Fix and flank" represents, of course, the basic tactic of the U.S. Marine Corps. Frontal assault? Too costly. Instead, direct just enough fire on the enemy to fix him in place, then send your main force around him, on a flanking maneuver, to take him by surprise from the side or rear.
"Fix and flank" works well in politics, too, but only--well, consider an example, Richard Nixon during the Watergate crisis. Insisting he was "not a crook," Nixon took on a bunker mentality, digging in. During the Watergate hearings, Nixon's antagonists in effect flanked him, going around the president to appeal directly to the public. Once he lost the support of a substantial portion of the public, Nixon had no choice but to surrender, resigning the presidency.
The trouble with applying "fix and flank" to politics, as you'll see if you compare Nixon, with, say, Bill Clinton, is that in politics you have to rely on your opponent has to "fix" himself. During the Watergate crisis, nobody forced Nixon to dig in. He just did. When Republicans captured the House of Representatives 20 years later, by contrast, Bill Clinton refused to dig in, instead changing his position by moving quickly and deftly to the center. Newt Gingrich was never able to "flank" Clinton because Clinton simply wouldn't stay put.
How does this apply to the present? Well, Barack Obama, the Democrats in Washington, and the mainstream media all seem intent on following Nixon's example, fixing themselves in position. Witness Barack Obama's press conference the day after the election, in which he admitted only that he had failed to communicate the rightness of his policies. Witness also the complete absence of any challenge to Harry Reid's intention to keep his post as Senate majority leader, or the insistence of a majority of House Democrats on supporting Nancy Pelosi to stay on as minority leader after she vacates the Speaker's chair. Or witness this, from Hendrik Hertzberg, a former Carter speechwriter now on the staff of the New Yorker, who summarized the lessons of the election as follows:
Part of the Democrats' political problem is that their defense...rests on counterfactuals (without the actions they gook...the great slump would have metastasized into a Great Depression), deferred gratification (the health-care law's benefits do not kick in fully until 2014), and counterintuitive propositions (the same hard times that force ordinary citizens to spend less money oblige the government...to spend more). Another part of the problem, it must be said, is public ignorance.
In other words, the liberals were right all along, and the American people were too deluded, impatient, and ignorant to understand. The liberals have, all Nixon-like, fixed themselves in place. Massive spending, a tax hike that would undermine small businesses, an vast health care bureaucracy that will raise the cost of health care, not contain it, and an insistence that the United States, no longer exceptional (if indeed it ever was) must become more like, let us say, Belgium.
That's the liberal program.
And they're sticking with it--enabling the likes of Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio to spend the next two years in a ceaseless flanking maneuver, appealing directly to the people on behalf of lower taxes, limited government, and the abiding, and singular, greatness of American values.
The Marines have landed--and their opponents have dug themselves in.
Sweet.
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Re: Fix and Flank
As I have said a great many times, the friends of liberty owe Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid an enormous debt. They have unmasked the Democratic Party and made visible to anyone with eyes to see the tyrannical ambition that underpins the progressive impulse. Think how differently things would have worked out had Barack Obama set aside his radical agenda and focused on the economic in his first term. Fortunately for us, he really is a one-trick pony -- as I suggested here and here.
Jun '10
Re: Fix and Flank
While the Democrats are busy digging deeper holes for themselves, we can start the job of bulldozing their ridiculous gerrymandered districts. There's a philosophical case to be made here. If the Founding Fathers wanted lifetime tenure for the political class, they wouldn't have mandated House elections every two years. The socialist putsch failed. It's the loser who pays the reparations.
Jul '10
Re: Fix and Flank
I think it's too early to claim victory yet.
This would be better said in 2013, after Obamacare is repealed and Social Security is re-worked and the budget is balanced.
Of course, the GOP are already stepping back from doing the latter.
Re: Fix and Flank
Yup, Paul, you sure did say so, first and best. And welcome back. You've been away for a couple of days.
Sep '10
Re: Fix and Flank
Here is the question that keeps bothering me: Who will be at the helm? Who will be our general? Since it has to be a multi-service attack, ie. governors, representatives, senators, state legislatures, journalists, intelligentsia, bloggers, and Joe Schmeau, the Tea Party guy, doesn't that suggest we need somone to direct the attack, consider the timing, etc. Do I have faith in current Republican leadership? Absolutely not. I see them as part of the problem.
Jun '10
Re: Fix and Flank
Good question. Allow me to answer. We the People do ordain and establish this Constitution . . .
May '10
Re: Fix and Flank
Speaking of the Marines, the analogy to the WWII campaign in the Pacific would be apt. Time to sharpen up the metaphorical Kabars, 2012 will be hand-to-hand like on Pelileu and Tarawa.
Jul '10
Re: Fix and Flank
Given Obama's ideological rigidity and pathological narcissism ( the Weekly Standard has a particularly insightful article this week on the latter) and the lack of outside influence because of the tight circle of enablers who surround him, the work of unseating him may be even easier that it looks at this point.
Sep '10
Re: Fix and Flank
~Paules
Good question. Allow me to answer. We the People do ordain and establish this Constitution . . . · Nov 13 at 6:26pm
But in 1789, We the People had George Washington to guide the process through the convention. Yes, it is the people that have to demand a change. It is the people that give candidates their opportunity to serve in Washington, but all to often, the people at that point lose control and have to wait for the next election cycle to do anything about it.
I think we havve a great opportunity to make a great revival and renew the principles on which this union was formed. The people are all on the bus ready to go. Who's driving? Beck? Palin? Steele? Newt? DeMint? Ryan?
I think at this time it would be best to have someone without White House aspirations. In 1789, Washington's only aspiratiton was to be a farmer. He only served as President because he was drafted to do so.
May '10
Re: Fix and Flank
To Standfast's question, I'd say our governors will be foremost in leading the assault(s), especially with their increased numbers and increased freedom of action due to our unprecedented gains in the state houses.
Christie, Daniels, Kasich, Barbour, Perry, McDonnell, Snyder, Walker, Haley, and more: We're locked and loaded.
May '10
Re: Fix and Flank
I think Scott has it right. Congress has to allow the country to operate, and not give the impression of the same kind of radicalism that has characterized it for the last two years, while still doing what is actually possible to slow and reverse the train.
The governors have two strong issues: 1) their states should not be drained to send money to NY and Califormia, and 2) Obamacare imposes massive costs on the states that are actually federal responsibilities. They should use every means possible to kill that nonsense.
Aug '10
Re: Fix and Flank
Finding this kind of a quote in a Hertzberg column is like looking for sand in the Sahara. The New Yorker is the best general interest magazine in America but I've gotten so tired of the predictable obtuse condescension that has long constituted the lead "Talk of the Town" column that I go back and forth between just skipping the column and letting my subscription lapse to the entire magazine.
Not that I have much affection for right-wing groupthink cheerleading either, but there's an amusing contrast between foolishly thinking the people are morons bamboozled by the siren song of Koch brothers false consciousness (the left cheerleader's position) and foolishly thinking the people are on the verge of rising up and throwing off the shackles of entitlement spending, public sector unions, and social issue coastal squishiness (the right cheerleader's position).
May '10
Re: Fix and Flank
This is a really good metaphor. It reminds me of Jimmy Carter basically locking himself inside the White House during the hostage crisis. Instead of appearing sympathetic, he came off as weak and handcuffed during the presidential campaign.