A mere three months ago our political universe contained two absolutes: this year, and sooner than later, we'd witness historic immigration reform and at least moderate gun control. Cable-news talkers were abuzz with hope, newspapers brimmed with unflinching optimism, partisan columnists subdued their learned cynicism. It was a new day, not at all like the last two years; the December monstrosity of Sandy Hook and the GOP's November drubbing would activate common sense and passable cooperation on Capitol Hill.
Some of the gridlocked madness and Republican obstructionism would cease. Because on guns, an outraged, horrified populace demanded change. And through its base-pandering abuse of a no-longer invisible underclass, the GOP sensed imminent doom.
Now, on legislating modest gun sanity, we hear the president's anticipatory admonition of "Shame on us"; on immigration reform, we've reached full-stop equivalence. "Yours is the second open letter in March that I have received from a Republican Senator," wrote Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy to Florida's conflicted demagogue, Marco Rubio, "each suggesting, in one way or another, that we slow the process for consideration of comprehensive immigration reform."
Meanwhile, Alabama's Jeff Sessions said "a sound committee process will take months." That's easily decipherable senator-speak for "It's over."
After all this--actually before any of this--I have had only one question. What in God's name were those hopeful talkers and optimistic editorial boards and sanguine columnists thinking? What possessed them to imagine the Republican Party--this Republican Party--as a prudent, responsible actor? Its word? Even less likely, the nation's needs? How utterly mid-20th century.
No, these Republican Ahabs are capable of unifying around only one, unshakable objective: Get Obama, destroy Obama, annihilate Obama's second-term legacy to the fullest extent of GOP malice. Only by pursuing this objective can the Ahabs protect their fanatical flank and thereby survive the next primary.
Such is the Rosetta stone for reading GOP strategy on every legislative urgency. It's a goddamn chiseled conspicuousness, which somehow the optimists keep misinterpreting.