So the Democrats have managed to alienate huge chunks of the electorate, the loonytoons 28% were bound to be alienated since anything other than their particular brand is un-American but… The Democratic controlled Congress has managed to ape the Republicans of 30 years ago and that has had the predictable lack of effect on the issues and managed to knock enthusiasm in the head. In the process of playing at being old timey GOPers the Democrats also managed to not only not sell what they could do, they ran away from it and let the current GOPers set the argument in their terms.
That is about strategic and legislative failures, this isn’t about that. This is about polling that shows that generic GOP candidates beat generic Democrats. Whatever failures the Democrats have committed in the name of politics the polling is about more than that. It is about Americans’ perennial love affair with the GOP myth, the Reagan myth. You could be forgiven believing that thirty years of its failure would discredit the nonsense, but noooooo. I think it is time to hand the reins back to them, in a large way and let them have their heads.
I know that involves some real pain for a significant chunk of the population, the question is really how much difference is that compared to the ongoing GOP myth being reenacted repeatedly? Maybe a real demonstration of what happens when they have their way would clear the air. Maybe the infliction of enough pain would convince Americans that they didn’t need more. That’s the rub, maybe.
The years of GOP domination in Congress and then most of the W presidency leading to a rather serious disaster ought to have gotten the idea across. Sure there was the creeping debilitation of working America for a long time but I suppose Americans are like the frog in the pot of slowly heated water and could be allowed that one. The latest smash-up is a bit difficult to excuse on such a basis. This means that, well damn if the polls are correct, Americans are all set to repeat the experience.
To be sure, this mid-term can’t do the real job of educating the populace; there will still be Barack Obama who might not repeat the Clinton signing of GOP bills with bad outcomes. The real experience would have to await the 2012 Presidential election of a GOP nut like Palin. Politically I find the whole idea reprehensible, but I wonder if the culture and society wouldn’t benefit in the long term. That question surely rides on whether the country could recover from such an experiment in any reasonable form. Previously I’d have said that this place is pretty damn resilient and that no short term political movement could ruin it, I’m not real confident of that anymore and this anniversary of September 11, 2001 makes me shiver in that regard.
I’m not really advocating anything here, I suppose this is analogous to wondering out loud – what do you think?
2 comments:
I think you have a good point, and unfortunately I think that the worse things get, the more people cling to their "ideals" and "beliefs" harder and harder. Thus -- the whole thing could backfire.
We know that the average people will be in much worse shape after many more years of GOP leadership. This could just make the stubborn resistance to fact and change that much more stubborn in the majority of folks.
They already believe BLATANT lies, just because Glen Beck or some such says them. Oh, and it fits nicely with their un-reasoned, emotional, subconsciousness, unquiet at having an African-American president (of any political stripe).
I'm meandering, but I feel that we are in for more GOP'ness and I can only pray that it wakes people up instead of making them even more resistant to facts.
Bp
(of independent/green persuasion, if anyone's asking)
You touch on the things that concern me. A bad economy is almost always bad for the party in power but going back to what got you there is so stupid that I do have to wonder if any shock could get through.
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