Bad Leadership Is The Food Poisoning Within Politics

Let’s simply agree that for the sake of argument that the deal hashed out by McConnell is awful. He was left with no good options. No fair-minded person can really argue that this predicament is where the Republican leadership wants to be. When the Japanese signed their surrender to the Americans, it would be ridiculous to say that the “line separating the Japanese and the Americans disappeared today.” The Japanese simply lost and that they tried to lose on the best terms possible. The same goes for the GOP. A Japanese nationalist would be on firmer ground criticizing the Japanese leadership for losing, and a libertarian populist — or even an establishment “RINO” — could likewise condemn failures of GOP leadership, whatever they may be. But as an analytical matter those failures simply don’t mean that we have anything like a single mono-ideological party called the “establishment.” 

I’m hardly a member of the Otto von Bismarck fan club, but I always liked his line about politics being the “art of the possible.” I’m open to any serious criticism of the GOP for failing to do the possible. But it’s a hallmark of populist passion to condemn men for failing to do the impossible.