PREVENT DEFENSE

Anyone remotely familiar with the NFL is all too familiar with the “prevent defense.” This is where a team suddenly decides, typically during the last two minutes of a game, to dramatically change the way they run their defense. They drop their cornerbacks and safeties way back to prevent the other team from making a long play. Wise announcers often say that the “prevent defense” only prevents the team deploying this from winning. We saw a classic example of that last Sunday night. The Packers were playing the 49ers and went ahead with 37 seconds on the clock. The 49ers kicked off and immediately went into the “prevent defense.” The result was what anyone remotely familiar with Aaron Rodgers expected. He threw a couple of 20 yards passes. That took Green Bay from their own 25 yard line to the 49er 32 yard line. Then they kicked a field goal as time ran out, winning the game.

The 49ers had made life difficult for Aaron Rodgers all game. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect if they had run their traditional defense that would have made it much harder for Aaron Rodgers to beat them. One should note that I did not care who won that game, so this is just an observation, not a gripe.

Today we are seeing the political version of “prevent defense” and odds are it will have similar results. Democrats have been promising to pass a $1.5 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill, which isn’t actually bi-partisan and then a $3.5 trillion social justice bill which they hope to pass through reconciliation. They need to do this through reconciliation because no Republican, even RINOs like Mitt Romney, will vote for this disaster. But there is trouble in River or should I say Capital City. It turns out Democrats can’t even pass the $1.5 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill, because it isn’t actually bi-partisan and progressives in the Senate are on a mission for all or nothing. Nancy Pelosi dropped this down to $500 billion, and still couldn’t get it passed. In the meantime, if progressives can’t get their $3.5 trillion play toy, they are going to take the ball and go home. Meanwhile moderate Democrats, a term used extremely lightly, in the Senate like Manchin and Sinema, are opposed to the “Big Deal.” Krysten Sinema has already left Washington, so there already are not enough Democratic votes in the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi delayed the bill because she knew it could not pass. Joe Biden is on the way over to congress ready to put his incredible personal leadership and communication skills on full display to push this over the line. I doubt that this will impress anyone. This is a hot mess, for Democrats, but great news for the rest of us. The reason I called this the “prevent defense” is that Democrats already know they are on their way to a historical drubbing next fall. Everything Joe Biden has touched, and I do mean everything, has turned out to be a complete disaster. The economy is tanking, inflation is soaring, and even the MSM is concerned about the potential for 400,000 plus new future star citizens to cross our open borders, without bothering to pass goal and certainly without getting vaccinated or tested for COVID. So, in order to prevent getting hammered next year, Democrats decided they must pass something, anything, so they can at least pretend an accomplishment only to prove that they can’t even get enough support within their own party to do anything.

No one in the Democratic Party is going to be happy about this. Perhaps the person who will get the most blame is Nancy Pelosi, but Chuck Schumer won’t be far behind. Everyone already blames Biden, so he won’t feel much impact. Incredibly Progressive Democrats are planning on Kamala Harris taking center stage and leading their base to victory in November 22. What could possibly go wrong with that brilliant strategy?

Like I wrote in the first paragraph, the “prevent defense” primarily prevents winning. In this case the good news is that if Democrats keep up this brilliant path to glory, November 2022 is likely to result in a world class day of Thanksgiving.

TDM