Default Will Extract a Political Price from the GOP
David Brooks delivers a withering column in today's NYT:
The struggles of the next few weeks are about what sort of party the G.O.P. is — a normal conservative party or an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation.
If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don’t take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern.
And they will be right.
Republicans in Congress need to understand that there will be a political price to them, not only to the president, if they force the United States into reneging on its contracted obligations. They need to hear that message from inside, from donors and supporters. That's not a "pro-Obama" message as some hot-heads charge. It's a pro "full faith and credit" message. The Obama program can (and in large measure should) be repealed. But default is not an acceptable tool of politics.
Brooks' column is a manifesto for the times, it should be nailed to the Republican equivalent of the church door at Wittenberg.