Revolutionary Diplomacy

Back many years ago, when I was trying to get a minor in political science, I took a course in international relations, and one of the interesting facets of the worldwide scene was the difference between the way new governments and established nations negotiate. At about the time I was learning this the Paris peace talks were starting. We Americans spent a month arguing with the North Vietnamese about the shape of the conference table, so the course did have some immediate relevance.

The jist of it is that established nations set out a maximum position at the beginning of negotiations, knowing they won't get all they ask for, and are willing to surrender some objectives to gain others. Brand new governments, those that have come to power by violent or at least extralegal methods, also set out a maximum position. The difference is that they cling to this set of demands, never budging, in the expectation that their opposites will wear down and give them everything. Only when it seems as if the negotiations are about to collapse will the revolutionary government suddenly be ready to strike a deal.

I bring this up now, because it seems that the idea of intransigence has been tranferred into our own domestic political situation. The revolutionaries in now are the Congressional Republicans who have refused to compromise on much of anything, and have managed to get away with it because the president and the Democrats in Congress were unprepared for the fight the GOP gave them and - might as well just be honest  - many Democrats haven't shown much backbone.

The trouble for the Republicans is that the Democrats are beginning to use the same technique, now called brinksmanship, to salvage some of their right to govern, a right based on their occupancy of the White House and a majority in the Senate.

What does this mean for the America we all love? More years of gridlock, more years when deals are finally made between a few leaders in Congress and the president at the last minute, rather than through thoughtful legislation. More chance for bad laws and bad appropriations to get through.

Woe is us.