There and Back Again - A Tale by Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan writes for Townhall.com:

The Day of the Hobbits

Buchanan states that despite all the ridicule the Tea Party Hobbits suffered at the hands of papers like the Wall Street Journal and fellow congressional leaders like John McCain, they got what they wanted at every turn.  Raise in the debt ceiling equal to cuts... got it.  No new taxes... got it.  To make the usually foregone conclusion of a debt ceiling raise an issue to use as a weapon... got it.  Buchanan states:

...the Tea Party "Hobbits" are indeed returning to Middle Earth -- to nail the coonskin to the wall.

Ah Buchanan, always good for a folksy turn of phrase from a bygone era that could be seen as passive-aggressively racist.

Beyond the Tea Party getting exactly what they wanted, Buchanan also points out that the kept the liberals from their goals.

What did liberals get? Nothing.

What did Obama get?

He demanded a "clean" debt-ceiling hike. When the GOP said no, he demanded a "balanced approach" -- tax hikes commensurate with spending cuts. Again, the GOP said no. Again, he capitulated.

Obama was tossed one crumb in his appeal that he not be forced to fight the Tea Party again in his re-election year. Democrats surrendered on substance and yielded on policy for "peace in our time."

An Obama/Chamberlain association for good measure.  Not sure who the Nazis would be in this comparison... whoops.

He goes on to state some other facts, but I'm not quite sure what conclusion to draw from them.  Here's one:

Ronald Reagan demanded 18 increases in the debt ceiling in eight years, one every six months. He got them all. Obama asked for a two-year truce and, in return, accepted what the head of the Black Caucus calls a "Satan sandwich."

So is this supposed to praise the leadership of Reagan, or demonstrate what a poor leader Obama is when compared to the great statesman Reagan?  It ignores the fact that Reagan didn't have to contend with an unbalanced masochistic fringe in Congress.  Back then, you could count on Republicans to completely get behind wanton deficit spending.

Here's an odd second observation:

The mainstream media claim that Tea Party intransigence lost the GOP the propaganda war. But if the left believes that, why would they be afraid of a re-enactment of their victory in 2012?

I'm not sure it's possible for Buchanan to miss the point by a wider margin here.  The left wasn't looking at this as a propaganda war, they were looking at it as a deficit war.  The left doesn't want to repeat all of this soap opera-esque political theater in six months because it's bad for the country, not because they are afraid of propagandistic slap fights.   It just isn't rational to flush a nation's economy down the toilet to make a point or shove an agenda down throats.

Buchanan sees that differently:

Some in the Tea Party were willing to go over the cliff and take the federal government with them. But liberals have lost the stomach for such a fight. Listening to the cable blow-by-blow, have you noticed?

Again, I'm not sure someone who refuses to play Russian Roulette should be labeled a coward.  Nor should the drunken slob who blows his brains out during that same game be remembered a hero.

Bring it all home for us, Pat:

Yet, in celebrating, Republicans and the Tea Party true believers need to know: This country is not out of the woods. Far from it.

Standard & Poor's has looked at the deal, less than $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years of budgets already bumping up against $4 trillion a year, and concluded: The U.S. government has failed.

An S&P downgrade of our triple-A bond rating may be at hand.

We weren't really in the woods to begin with, Pat.  The Tea Party dragged us into the woods, then threw the map away just like one of the characters in The Blair Witch Project.  Maybe we should ask the Tea Party to stop taking political advice from stupid movies.

S&P have it right, the American government failed.  There's nothing to celebrate.  It's not the numbers that convey the failure, it's our behavior.  If the Tea Party misconstrues this fact and doubles down on their crazy, we'll get downgraded again, feeding the Tea Party non-existent evidence to triple down on their crazy.  A self-feeding cycle born of ignorance.

EDIT:

Sorry, there's just one more quote I have to work in here.  Buchanan's article continues on to talk about how despite recent Tea Party efforts, the U.S. dollar is still headed down the toilet and the economy still struggles.  We're destroying the dollar, a far worse form of default than simply not covering T Bills.  The final quote:

One wonders what men like Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower would think of a 21st century America whose elites rejoice in the news that the U.S. dollar is less valued and less respected in the world than in the America they fought to defend.

MacArthur would probably flee and then return dramatically, but only after multiple takes for the photo op.

Eisenhower would throw up.  He warned us of the dangers of the industrial-military complex taking over our country and our economy.  I personally believe he would feel thoroughly disgusted at the selfish posturing of politicians, not the waning strength of the dollar.