Beyond this shutdown our government has lost the ability to talk to the other side.

Another proof of bad faith: The inconsistency of ‘blacktracking’

Before President George W. Bush announced his support for legislation creating a federal Do Not Call list, liberal politicians and liberal bloggers were uniformly in favor of the idea. It was, they said, a matter of principle. Government regulation for consumer protection was consistent with their values, their ethics, their ideology and their philosophy of government.
...
So what happened when this man, their foe, suddenly made this proposal part of his agenda? Well, after Bush announced his support for the Do Not Call list, all those liberal politicians and liberal bloggers who had previously supported the idea … still supported the idea. They still insisted it was in accord with their principles and their values and they stuck with those principles and values. They applauded Bush for his support, welcomed his support, and worked with him to make the registry a reality.
...
For the past six years, President Barack Obama has repeatedly embraced Republican ideas — from the ACA itself, a Heritage Foundation plan first implemented by Mitt Romney, to his recent consultation with Congress over military action against Syria. Some consider this habit of Obama’s to be an act of shrewd political genius — “11 dimensional chess,” some call it. Others view it as evidence that he’s a lousy bargainer who concedes half the game with his opening offer. Still others say it shows he’s neither maneuvering nor bargaining, just a moderate who embraces some Republican ideas because he likes them.

But the response from some nominal conservatives has not been anything like the consistency liberals showed on the rare occasions President Bush supported Democratic ideas. Their response is to switch positions — to abandon their prior argument and allegiance and to being opposing ideas they had very recently advocated just because Obama had announced his support of them.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/09/30/another-proof-of-bad-faith-the-inconsistency-of-blacktracking/