Editorial: moderate Democrats underestimate the tribe of conservative Republicans

From Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post:

Hickenlooper’s entry reveals how moderates fatally misunderstand today’s GOP

"When Barack Obama was elected (another Democrat who said he wanted to bring people together), McConnell and his colleagues made a decision that they would work to deny Obama any victories, even if it meant doing demonstrable harm to the country. They would filibuster everything, slow confirmation of appointees to a crawl, shut down the government, threaten to default on America's debts, and find any legislative maneuver they could to throw sand in the gears. They were neither shy nor subtle in making clear that this is what they were doing."

Waldman is right; they (the GOP) can't be negotiated with. As McConnell has shown repeatedly, they won't do anything they should do, but don't want to do, unless they're forced to do it, usually kicking and screaming and blaming Democrats for being reasonable.