Young-Broder-in-training hears a heavy stillness

. - by New Deal democrat

Young Broder in Training, Ezra Klein, ever willing to shill centrist neoliberal social welfare cuts, tries -- seriously -- to sell the idea that liberals should relax because Obama won the fiscal cliff negotiations, but confesses to being taken aback:

The frustration I’m hearing in the aftermath of the fiscal cliff deal is different. First, it’s less fury than disappointment. In the aftermath of these deals — with the possible exception of the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis — there’s usually a core group of liberal pragmatists who think the White House did indeed outfox the Republicans, even if much of the left is angry over the deal. This time, those sources seem to think the White House got outfoxed, that they traded a lot of leverage for a little revenue, and they’re depressed over it. 

Second, the disappointment is more total than I can remember it being at any time since the debt-ceiling crisis. I literally have not had one conversation in the last 24 hours in which the person on the other side of the phone tilted positive on the Deal.

(my emphasis)

In other words, instead of hearing hot frustration, he hears cold depression. The stillness of a dog which realizes its master will do nothing but continue to beat it. The quiet of an abused spouse who finally contemplates that her husband's repeated swearing that he'll never hit her again is an empty promise doomed to be broken. The silence of children whose parents have died, who know that their aunts and uncles really are going to put them in an orphanage. Hot anger has been replaced by cold acceptance. This is the sullen, heavy silence that Klein has heard.

At some level, it must finally be sinking in for those "on the other side of the phone" that they should take Obama at his word that he really is a 1980s moderate Reagan Republican who ran for office on the democratic line mainly as a flag of convenience. [Memo to the Daily Kos Obama kewl kidz: if you admit that your policies are 1980s GOP policies, then you are admitting that you are a 1980s GOPer, just as surely as a storekeeper who refuses to serve minorities is a bigot, despite any protestations to the contrary.]

But when the thief attacks the owner in the night, the dog is likely to cower in the corner. When the drunken husband falls asleep, the spouse loads up the car with her belongings - if she doesn't use the revolver first. The orphans grow up to adulthood and move away, while their cousins hold secret meetings vowing not to treat one another's children as their own parents treated their cousins.

So far, the fish-eyed consideration may only be of Obama. But in short order, the cold reserve may be extended to a wider group. Since the election, I have steadfastly maintained that is the democratic brand, not the GOP's, which is likely to be forever tarnished.

Ezra Klein has heard a heavy stillness. Usually it is accompanied by a greenish hue to the clouds. Soon there will be a far off rumble somewhere as the contemplative quiet gives way. There Will Be Consequences.