“The government we have is the government that the framers, who were economic elites, designed,” Bishin says. “We are seeing the result of that structure today.”
In his 2009 book “Tyranny of the Minority,” Bishin describes how intense minorities are able to achieve their policy objectives. “Politicians gain disproportionate benefits by appealing to citizens who feel very strongly about things. Usually they are able to tap in to some aspect of how individuals see themselves. It’s particularly easy for this intense minority of tea party supporters to achieve their policy objectives because their objectives are to stop things from happening in Congress. Congress and our government in general are designed to make it difficult to get things to happen.”
The stated goal of tea party Republicans to stop “Obamacare” could be viewed as a waste of time in that the Affordable Care Act does not require funding this budget, Bishin says. However, the stalemate is “leading to a scenario where the budget that is likely to be adopted will be a short-term budget, adopted in the form of a continuing resolution. Amounts in continuing resolutions tend to be much lower than what is negotiated and agreed to in the normal budget process. Many of the basic benefits and services we’ve come to expect, whether it be inspection of food before it hits the supermarket or routine maintenance, likely will be funded at lower levels than if the normal budget process were working.”
Redistricting has led to a high level of electoral security for most members of Congress, he says. “The reason (certain Republican) legislators are free to take actions we view as extreme is they don’t have to worry about facing an electoral challenge from a Democrat. … Their concern is not with trying to appeal to the average voter or what the majority of the public wants. They want to appeal to their intense constituency, which is a particular wing of the Republican Party.”
The Republican brand has lost so much of its appeal that the loss of congressional seats the president’s party historically experiences in a midterm election is not a sure thing in 2014, Bishin adds. “The people who are going to be at risk are the small number of Republicans in competitive districts. Once they feel enough pressure and they get concerned, if they go to the leadership and say this (shutdown) is all great but you’re not gaining anything policywise and you may lose the majority, that’s the kind of thing likely to make them act. Either that, or once the tea party Republicans have been satisfied that they’re not going to get a reversal of Obamacare, perhaps they will allow a vote to come to the floor even though a majority will vote against it. Those are the most likely scenarios (to resolving the current impasse) and they’re problematic, especially with respect to the debt ceiling.”
Ben Bishin video on the government shutdown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHi6UswVbac&feature=youtu.beBen Bishin website http://www.politicalscience.ucr.edu/people/faculty/bishin/index.html
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