In a November 29th staff editorial, the Union Leader, while trying to poke New Hampshire’s All Gurl Kongressional Delegation, lent a hand and a good word to No Labels, a left-wing group pretending to be centrist.
None of the four members of New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation has yet joined the Problem Solvers Caucus. There are other ways to work across the aisle.
But on the big issues of health care and tax reform, New Hampshire’s federal officials have effectively taken their votes off the table. They seem more interested in proving how opposed they are to President Trump than accepting that Republicans should actually get something out of a political compromise.
Reality check. Democrat Congressional “help” only takes the form of making sure Republicans pass things that don’t “fix” anything or that advance Democrat priorities. And oh, by the way, that is what No Labels are all about.
“Ancient” Political History Lesson
No Labels formed right after the US House Democrats got blown out of power in November 2010 with the tagline, Not Left. Not Right. Forward. A theme that MSNBC would embrace shortly after with ‘Lean Forward‘ as an ill-fitting mask over their histrionic lap-dog leftism.
Forward, is, of course, the age-old socialist buzzword for moving away from things that keep Democrat Socialists from getting their way. Forward is not forward. It is sideways, backward, any direction that breaks down barriers to the progressive agenda.
No Labels exists to provide cover to Democrats like Maggie Hassan (helping them sell themselves as moderates), Democrats registered as Republicans (or Republicans who have drifted so far left as to be indistinguishable from Democrats), and anyone else who could be convinced the TEA party was not formed in response to taxes, TARP, the Stimulus, and the swelling national debt, and were actually just a bunch of Obama-hating racists.
No Labels is nothing more than a moderate mask for progressives of all labels.
In 2012 No Labels moved forward from “we need to get things done” to let’s get them done with an imperial presidency. An idea that is decidedly left, and antithetical to the political right. That is, to say, not centrist in the slightest.
- “Twice a year, the president should be able to introduce legislation directly to Congress for a fast-track [majority] vote … bypass[ing] partisan obstruction.”
- The president should be granted “expedited rescission authority,” similar to the line-item veto authority that empowers governors to remove specific provisions from state spending legislation.
- To avoid “the lengthy and highly intrusive [Senate] vetting process,” the number of presidential appointees subject to Senate confirmation, particularly in the case of “mid-level” officials, should be reduced.
- Any presidential nomination not formally confirmed or rejected by the Senate within 90 days, would be confirmed by default.
- The president should be empowered “to reorganize—or even eliminate—redundant parts of the federal government.”
Each of the foregoing provisions is intended to increase the power of the president while diminishing that of Congress. As NL co-founder Nancy Jacobson puts it: “We’re trying to make the presidency more effective.” A New York Times analysis notes that under NL’s proposed policies, the president “would have more latitude to reorganize the government, appoint his own team, reject special-interest measures, and fast-track his own initiatives through Congress.” This, says the Times, would “cut through some of the institutional obstacles to decisive leadership that have challenged President Obama and his recent predecessors,” and “would go a long way toward restoring faith in the presidency.”
This “effective” idea for getting things done quickly fell out of favor.
When Backward Looks like Forward
In the blink of an eye No Labels, the non-partisan, problem solvers, decided to scrap their Make the Presidency Work initiative, because under no circumstance did they want a Republican President to be “more effective” or “cut through some of the institutional obstacles” to get anything done.
Those founders with their checks and balances were out of touch, and then they weren’t. Obstruction was no longer racist, it was patriotic. So not only are the original web pages promoting these forward-thinking “give the chief executive more power to get things done” ideas gone you can’t find anything like them anywhere on the No Labels website.
But don’t worry. That is just a coincidence. It is not yet another indication that No Labels is nothing more than a progressive cover band. No, no, no, they are here to solve problems. They are here to bring both sides together in a happy middle (that continues to look like the left).
Along the way to bailing on a more powerful presidency, they concocted the Problem Solver narrative. Anyone who helped advance their liberal priorities (shhh, that’s a secret), regardless of their label, could be a Problem Solver.
Problem solvers would help create 25 million jobs, secure social security, and Medicaid, embrace a new (green) energy future, and you can visit any Democrat party candidate or elected officials web page for the details.
Problem solvers, regardless of labels, are solving problems with liberal solutions.
But I think I solved the whole thing in one post back in 2015 when they proposed it, without expanding government or centralizing power inside the DC beltway, or adding thousands of new rules and regulations. or more taxpayer-funded bureaucrats. Which means I didn’t solve it, because what they want is to use these issues to grow government, and by extension, the power of the state. A circumstance that inevitably leads to “one-party rule” where we no longer need to worry about labels.
No Labels. Get it?
When Hillary Was Inevitable
Prior to the election of Mr. Trump the left and the media were all-in on messaging that, not accidentally, mirrors No Labels latest mantra: Stop fighting start fixing. We all needed to come together to help President Hillary move things forward.
When Trump won the left went to War.
And that’s how things will go until at least until at least November 2018.
If the RINO’s and the Deep State can hang on to as much of Mr. Obama’s policies as possible, even a “moderate” shift to the left in the construction or disposition of the Congress will add a layer of protection to the designs of progressives, including the ones without labels, until 2020.
Stop fighting to keep the Ruling Class status quo until Liberals are in charge again.
No Labels is a fraud and always has been. They are Baghdad Bob, advocating a reality that does not exist while extolling virtues few if any on the left have or want. But we should thank the Union Leader for reminding us of them so that we could set the record straight (again).
As for New Hampshire’s All Gurl Kongressional Delegation, they don’t need to sign up, they are already “on the team” but the only problem any of them want to solve is removing obstacles to the Democrat Party and its radical agenda, labeled or not.
And as soon as we stop fighting them on it, they can fix us, and we can all move forward.
