If I was truly a saintly compassionate Christian, I would feel pity for Karl Rove. After all shortly after Bush was inaugurated, he boasted that he was creating a permanent Republican majority, a nation that would revere the GOP and disdain Democrats and in particular, liberals.
Well, not only was he wrong about that, he can’t even keep his own party under control. Last night, several key Republican primaries went to Teabaggers. Last night, Sarah Palin’s wing of the Republican party showed its teeth, and Sarah Palin laid claim to the mantle of the Pat Robertson fringe. A solid minority of motivated voters got out and voted.
In Delaware, the Senate race will now be between a nutcase and a Democrat. In New York, this backdrop will provide a stage for the governor’s race. Across the northeast, this same scenario played out over and over again.
You might ask why. Well, here’s the answer:
Consider the liberal northeast. Incumbent Republicans– almost to a man– are RINOs, according to the barbarian hordes of Teabaggers. They have to be, if they want to court moderate voters in the liberal, intellegentsic northeast. You can’t win in any of these state in this corner of the country without them.
But here’s the thing: the Republican party has left moderates behind in droves. It’s gotten so bad that moderates like Christine Todd Whitman and Amo Houghton have had to pony up PAC money to try to get a seat at the leadership table. So basically, a Teabagger win in any of these states is less an endorsement of their craziness and more a disinterest on the part of the rank and file voters.
They simply don’t care. Democrats reign supreme in this section, precisely because moderates look at the south and the west and realize the only way to keep this country from sliding into the Dark Ages is to vote Democratic and put some brakes on the sled. They aren’t enthusiastic about moderate Republicans, because they’re going to get beaten at the polls anyway. The only Republican senator around these parts is Scott Brown, who won Ted Kennedy’s seat in a special election that was more lost by the Democrat who assumed she’d be handed the job than won by Brown, who had Teabagger support until he screwed them in the butt by voting with Obama on a few key items.
Karl Rove is understandably upset by this, but me, I enjoy the schadenfreude. As with Frankenstein’s monster, you can’t control rage and fear in the confines of a party, so when you create rage and fear, you better be prepared to be the first victim of the blowback. Kudos, Karl! You may have handed the Democrats another eight years of hegemony on a silver platter!
The key for Democrats this season will be to unleash the GOTV operation. Against a moderate Republican, there would be a distinct difficulty in attracting moderates. Against a Teabagger, they’ll practically beg the Democrats to vote for them.
But be warned: As Martha Moxley can tell you, it’s not a slam dunk. You do have to give some reason to vote, and ignoring the concerns of both the base AND the independents will blow up in your faces. You’d better do something and you’d better do it right and you have six weeks to do it.
Agree the vote count will be critical. If we have a heavy turnout, the teabaggers will be blown away. I also think the Dems should confront the crazies at every opportunity – the more the nutcases open their mouths, the more they will self-destruct. Until now, they people have been preaching to the choir but when they have to convince the whole congregation, I think their insanity will become obvious.
“Karl Rove. After all shortly after Bush was inaugurated, he boasted that he was creating a permanent Republican majority, a nation that would revere the GOP and disdain Democrats and in particular, liberals.”
Exactly the Teabagger’s goals, except replace Republican with Tea Party majority.
They believe that most of the nation has come around to their side, too, and that in November the lib dems will get their come uppance and a big shock.
I believe Rove has helped the Teabaggers immensely by preparing the ground and the strategy; they just took the ball from him and are running with it.
The Tea Baggers may accomplish the nearly impossible task of keeping the most inept political party ever in power. It’s not easy but they’re trying.
The Democratic Party now serves as a blocking agent. They keep the real needs of the people at bay by perpetuating their anti democratic and pro oligarchy policies by posing as an “alternative” to the crazies. They are, in fact, sleepwalkers who stride along the rubble that they’ve helped heap upon our nation all the time pointing out just how much better things are.
Kieth Olberman is now flacking for Obama – Gee the deficit is down 8% under Obama, he says. Gee, Kieth, unemployment and underemployment, fully considered, are at 20%. So much for our “liberal” champion. And there will be more “liberal” champions rallying to the Democrats as the election nears.
Instead of calling supporters for cash, the Democratic Party should do a mass mailing of air sickness bags.
that democrats will retain control of the Senate and the House. It is pure demographics, and the demographics for democrats is getting so strong that it will help midterm elections now as well. In recent years republicans have a way of utterly imploding at the end, which is precisely when folks start to focus on campaigns. In elections, the majority of voters begin to notice about three weeks before an election. And the TEA PARTY face will be what is seen.
And to your point, the democrats that come out of this election cycle will be more progressive and more willing to fight for progressive issues. Many of the Rahm democrats will be gone. I see little gained from expanding the democrat party to a very large size by incorporating conservatives, because all it does is water down the left side of the aisle. That should change this cycle.
To the point of unemployment though, there is little to none a President or Congress can do but keep unemployment checks going and wait for a nascent recovery. In context, the unemployment problem is massive and comes from many sources. World unemployment right now is estimated at 210 million! It’s a crazy number. Productivity is a huge part of the problem, the entire generation of the baby boom being in employable years is part of the problem. The mismatch of education as the needs of the economy change is another (construction workers who are trained for little else).
There are a number of world forums going on about the problems of unemployment and it will be interesting what solutions emerge. One of the leading is providing a reduced workweek. In Europe from 30 to 35 hours to 25 to 30 hours. In the US it would be moving to a 32 hours work week. The problem is always the fixed cost of health care.
I still want to see the expansion of medicare by lowering the age of enrollment from 65 to 55. I also think a medicare provision should be made for all children from birth to age 18 to start. From there the allowance of kids to be on their parents healthcare extends to 28 under the present proposal. These are the groups consuming 75% of the health care dollar. It needs to be brought under government control. This clears the way for some expansion in lowering the work week, and it also makes the older workers more employable.
Chris Hedges
excerpt:
The menace we face does not come from the insane wing of the Republican Party, which may make huge inroads in the coming elections, but the institutions tasked with protecting democratic participation. Do not fear Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. Do not fear the tea party movement, the birthers, the legions of conspiracy theorists or the militias. Fear the underlying corporate power structure, which no one, from Barack Obama to the right-wing nut cases who pollute the airwaves, can alter. If the hegemony of the corporate state is not soon broken we will descend into a technologically enhanced age of barbarism.
Investing emotional and intellectual energy in electoral politics is a waste of time. Resistance means a radical break with the formal structures of American society. We must cut as many ties with consumer society and corporations as possible. We must build a new political and economic consciousness centered on the tangible issues of sustainable agriculture, self-sufficiency and radical environmental reform. The democratic system, and the liberal institutions that once made piecemeal reform possible, is dead. It exists only in name. It is no longer a viable mechanism for change. And the longer we play our scripted and absurd role in this charade the worse it will get. Do not pity Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. They will get what they deserve. They sold the citizens out for cash and power. They lied. They manipulated and deceived the public, from the bailouts to the abandonment of universal health care, to serve corporate interests. They refused to halt the wanton corporate destruction of the ecosystem on which all life depends. They betrayed the most basic ideals of democracy. And they, as much as the Republicans, are the problem.
“It is like being in a pit,†Ralph Nader told me when we spoke on Saturday. “If you are four feet in the pit you have a chance to grab the top and hoist yourself up. If you are 30 feet in the pit you have to start on a different scale.â€
All resistance will take place outside the arena of electoral politics. The more we expand community credit unions, community health clinics and food cooperatives and build alternative energy systems, the more empowered we will become.
I did inhale.
I’m not shouting it from the rooftops, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Coming Democratic Massacre(tm) isn’t nearly as bad as some are making out. Only because, yes, the Republicans have gone bat-shit insane. If they were able to crack it back about five notches, they’d make huge gains. As it is.. maybe they still will.
But even if they do win, and go through with their government-shutdown plan.. in 2012 they’ll be right back in the hole again. Of course, that doesn’t help solve any of the massive problems the country faces, and sooner or later, something’s gonna give.
–
-Geoduck
for the link, Don. Al Jazeera ran a good half-hour documentary on the oil spill which highighted this fact…BP and govt. working in tandem to promote the illusion that all is well. It isn’t.
But you’ll do.
Do not feed the beast.
Here is another area that is emerging to try wrest control away from corporate power. States today are looking at creating state owned banks with which to do their business, rather than looking to wall street. Community, and cooperatives, local. It is the absolute only way to go.
Dmitry Orlov, who recommends not paying attention to national politicians on the grounds that it only encourages them. The piece goes on a little more deeply than that, of course but I’m always interested when disparate points of view happen upon the same conclusions.