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The Tactics of Tit-for-Tat
“Simply put, the tactics of Tit-for-Tat are: We will do to you what you have done to us — plus extra as punishment.”
It is not surprising that with the House of Representatives in GOP control starting this next year, a number of conversations are going on regarding what should be the main priorities of the incoming party. Committees will be staffed and pursue largely legislative and investigative activities. In both of these areas, the Democratic Party has turned to unconventional methods, to put it lightly.
Legislatively the previous House decided to not just stop at censuring a member thought to have performed some action deemed by the body as unbecoming and instead moved to remove certain members from sitting on committees entirely, and further limited minority power beyond what was historically agreed upon. Regarding Congressional Investigative actions, there is no greater example of abuse by the outgoing Democrats than the shameful “Select Committee on the January 6 Attack,” which saw minority-selected members for the committee rejected by the majority.
The results were an investigative committee staffed entirely by members hand-picked by the majority. The committee performed outrageous actions almost solely focused on members of the minority, and suspiciously only on aspects of that day that cast the minority, their party, and the formal Presidential candidate in unflattering lights. It is not a matter of whether there is or is not validity to the subjects investigated, it is rather a matter of proper due process – a process that in this country is done largely via an adversarial system of justice. There was no adversary, therefore, there was no true investigation ever performed by this select committee.
Now that there is new leadership (kind of — we don’t know yet who will be the next Speaker, but we will…), talk of doing to the new Democratic minority the same things that were previously done to the Republicans has begun. Some folks, understandably, look down on these actions seeing them as unproductive, vindictive, or in some way unbecoming of grown statesmen and they wish to return to proper order. Others wish not only to return the favor of the aforementioned actions, but to add an almost inflationary-like increase in their severity and scope.
Personally, I want to see a new standard of Punitive Tit-for-Tat Action enacted. It should be spoken clearly and forcefully by whomever the new Speaker is, and equally clearly and concisely written down for future reference and public consumption.
Simply put, the tactics of Tit-for-Tat are: We will do to you what you have done to us – plus extra as punishment.
For example, take the removal of certain members from committee assignments. This will be done the number of instances equal to what was done to us PLUS additional members as punishment. You treat us like children, we will treat you like children — with interest. Perhaps next time, you will refrain from these actions and govern like civilized members of a modern Western nation.
We will make a new January 6 Select Committee and will staff it with only our hand-picked choices, and this time there will be no members of the minority at all. This trend may very well continue into some of the other select committees for investigation we may form — as punishment for your misbehavior. We will demand answers from the various institutions involved, and if answers are not forthcoming, we will target and defund sections of that agency in the next budget.
Throughout this time, anytime someone complains or laments the actions of the new GOP majority, the response will be to simply point to the Tit-for-Tat Actions memo and shrug our shoulders. We did not start this fight, but we will end this fight — by rubbing the minority’s nose in the mess they made while making use of the proverbial rolled-up newspaper to forcefully repeat, “No! Bad use of legislative rules! No!”
I look forward to hearing everyone’s take on what should be done regarding returning the favors to the new minority party. I don’t see how we can just go back to “normal” without engaging in some Tit-for-Tat Tactics. How else will they learn unless someone hits back. A classic bully needs classic response.
Published in Politics
Take some notes folks. New Rules to play by:
Yes, indeed. Interest has been earned.
With constant reminders of why with examples of why. Every time a camera or microphone is on . With tweets galore of why on the most followed members of twitter. Also a banner on the outside of the capital explaining the why as concisely as possible. And commercials during prime time sporting events stating the why . Make them choke on the why .
I’ve long noted here that tit-for-tat has been shown (via game theory and in practice) to be one of, if not the, most effective tool for enforcing cooperation.
Faster please.
I feel I am due decades of “tat”.
How about an investigation of how the current Speaker came to violate the norms in setting the membership of the January 6th committee? Compel the appearance of Pelosi and her staff, all of the members of the current committee, all of their communications, and any donors contributing to the farce.
But also remember that people who didn’t arrive at a position through reason, cannot be convinced out of it by reason. They won’t understand “tit for tat” because they think Republicans deserved it but Dimocrats don’t. They often believe other foolishness too, such as that if inflation were to “stop,” prices would go back down. That’s not true either.
I agree that it’s due, but I don’t underestimate the ability of many people to decide it’s all Republicans’ fault. Especially if budget cuts result in “shutdowns” etc. Biden and others will say it’s Republicans’ fault for not funding all those extra IRS agents and more gain-of-function research in China, and many people will think it makes sense.
This is my favorite part.
It’s a good idea and I’m all in favor. Keep in mind, though, that they have government money to do this and we don’t. Their money is mostly well laundered and mostly legal, but they have the wealthiest corporation on their side: the U.S. government.
I am way past tit for tat, I am looking for some tap.
I don’t think revenge or punishment is helpful or necessary. Abraham Lincoln had far more reason to exact revenge on the South than we do on modern democrats, but purposely chose not to. If just the normal processes of justice are followed, it would be better than republicans have done so far, and I would be happy as hell. That would include removing any democrat members from their committee positions as the democrats have already blaized that trail, and for the moment, exposing the lies of Fauci, and a whole slew of democrats, which the new House Majority will have the power to do, even though they do not have prosecutorial power over the Justice Department. When republicans do get into the White House, they should be prosecuting everybody who has been given a free pass, including Hillary Clinton, Joe and Hunter Biden, James Comey, Christopher Wray, John Brennan, Peter Strzok, Lois Lerner, Andrew McCabe, and you can add dozens or hundreds of names to this list………
Take it to the top. Investigations, including tax returns, of the entire Biden Crime Family. Depose Hunter Biden under oath, and publish the entire contents of his laptop computer in the Congressional Record.
If the GOP were in a position of real strength and their leaders were competent, it might work.
The statute of limitations will probably have expired in most of those cases, especially in Clinton’s case; I believe that’s already expired.
Lol
True, you cannot believe that the unreasonable will comprehend – this would be largely for the persuadable, and continuing to refer to these actions in the same common language will hopefully break through the obfuscation of the media. As far as the Republican’s fault, yeah, that is something that will always happen no matter what – you got to take your stand and show your reason and determination.
Yes, solid punitive actions via the purse. I did not know that it could be so minutely targeted, Rachel Bovard had a piece up at The Federalist I believe that brought that specificity to my attention. She’s a real gem when it comes to congressional procedural tactics.
So no extra punishment, but you are on board for Tit-for-Tat actions against the Democrats like removing members from committees. Agreed that much of the needed action cannot take place without an agreeable – stress that *agreeable* – executive in office.
Truer things have not been said. Baby steps over the last 20+ years have lead us to the greatest position for change and action the GOP has seen since the 70s.
I have said elsewhere here that we do need to re-open, or possibly start a fresh one, the Jan.6 investigation.
But it seems wiser to invite everyone from the previous committee still available. This way we can demonstrate how much more adult we are, how much more important it is to hew to tradition and fairness, unlike the desperate Democrats.
Then we will review each and every point they made, and conclusion they drew, and accusation they then hurled, right there in front of them.
Then we will stop after each one and this time break out all the evidence they forbade, call every witness they protected, and hopefully expose every government official or employee who may have been involved.
We will insist that all the footage be made available, all the details about the supposed bomb, everything. We will serve up an enormous fecal sandwich and make them eat it.
This ridiculous charade should be completely discredited, and the people who foisted it shamed and driven from office.
Then, all the people who have been held in jail with out charge should be released, and met by lawyers with the lawsuit papers ready to go.
Don’t waste that hand picked committee on Jan 6th, use it instead to investigate either the 20 election, or the Biden family dealings. Heck, tit for tat, do them both. Only allow Ds on the committee who are willing to Cheney themselves and stab themselves in the back.
Great, make blowback costly for them.
Dems relish the tat. Republican and independent hissy fit voters will attack Republicans for it.
Like this, yes.
We prevent mob justice because we have, or had, a justice system so people wouldn’t seek revenge on their own. We got January 6 because people felt they had no other path to be heard. If Congress doesn’t give us the tat, people just might feel the need to pursue justice themselves.
So, here we are, Republicans can prevent mob rule by seeking justice while Democrats have sought to prevent it though authoritarian jailing of those who dared question them. Pick your poison. There is no middle path.
Yes, because calling out and demonstrating the hypocrisy of the Dems and being an example of how it ought to be done has worked so well in the past.
That’s sarcasm, by the way. No one cares about hypocrisy or the Republicans setting an example.
As I noted above, tit-for-tat has been shown (via game theory and in practice) to be one of, if not the, most effective tool for enforcing cooperation. You may not like it, but it’s a fact. So we should use the tool that actually works.
They have to be held accountable.
They won’t be.
I didn’t comment on your first post, but meant to – yes, this is based in game theory as the best way to force-foster cooperation. A Sword of Damocles type incentive.
Don’t ignore the possibility – even the likelihood – that the same media that slavvered over the Dimocrats version, will simply ignore it.
Of course the media will suppress it. You either have to be so outrageous that the media will have no option but to come out with a hate campaign against it, or go around the media. Or both.
The first investigation should be to investigate why and How Speaker Pelosi failed to protect the Capitol on 1/6/21. The committee doing the investigation should exclude all of the previous leadership under Pelosi and any Democrat clearly in Pelosi’s camp.
That would be good as a tit-for-tat but not so good in establishing the credibility of the committee’s findings. No matter what game theory says, it will not induce fair play and cooperation. These are Democrats that we’re talking about.
“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”
― William Tecumseh Sherman
Let’s not emphasize revenge, no matter how sweet that might seem.
Let’s “do it for the children.” Make the case that our actions are for the good of the rising generation.
I suspect that game theory has not met the Chicago Way before.