How to Tame the Fat Ugly Beast (Working with Congressional Republicans)

Barack Obama may have won the election, but congressional republicans still exist, and through no fault of their constituents they tend to all be assholes. John Boehner is a complete prick, and he has surrounded himself with equally moronic individuals dead set on pretending as though they have something important to fight for.

While the Republican party may have many beliefs I disagree with, generally they are just disagreements. But Boehner and them are awful in every way, and the fact that they are in control of the Republican representatives in the house is nothing short of a death sentence for the future of Republicanism, and a huge stupid barrier in front of getting anything accomplished during the Obama presidency.

So how should they be dealt with?

Ignoring them is mistake number 1. While many bills can pass without them, their verbal response is going to make it hard for the Democratic party to win support in 2010 and 2012 if even a single bill does not accomplish what it is expected to accomplish.

So one possible proposal is for Barack Obama himself to call these Republican leaders in to a meeting, one at a time, in order to play what is essentially a game.

Barack Obama is a liberal senator, Boehner is a Conservative. Perhaps instead of discussing issues from their point of view, they should argue the opposite point of view.

In other words, Obama plays the conservative, Boehner plays the liberal, and they have a real, non spiteful debate trying to explain "their side" in order to come up with a compromise. The only way to do this is to play each role (liberal for Boehner, conservative for Obama) very seriously, doing a lot of research and trying to ensure they are well versed in expert reasoning for their "new" side. Then they slowly start to give until they can come to a middle ground that works well enough for both of them.

At that point they present the bill as a dual effort. It becomes a bipartisan bill that isn't going to make everyone happy, but is a good enough compromise that it will help to get things done without too much disagreement.

That is one thought. There are many other ways to deal with them - and all of your ideas are welcome in the comments section below - but I think that is Obama's best option especially if he hopes to be reelected in 2012.

Thoughts?