All the punditry and pollsters seem to agree that Democrats are going to be slaughtered in the coming mid-term elections. I can't say I would be surprised to see it happen.
Further, in spite of their huge legislative successes (Federal stimulus, national health care, credit card reforms, financial reform), the Democrats deserve to lose. From my perspective, the Democrats lacked the courage to do what was really necessary. They didn't do enough to satisfy the true-believers (like me), but did more than enough (in spite of a cowardly attempt at appeasement) to infuriate the Glenn Beck-tormented tea-baggers. Some things may be forgiven when you consider that Democrats have the burden of being a coalition of different interests: diverse, often at odds with each other. But, whatever may happen this November, the Democrats have definitely earned a comeuppance.
However, if the Democrats deserve to lose, it does not follow that the Republicans deserve to win. The one meager virtue Democrats have is that they are not Republicans. Despite Minority Leader Boehner's feeble grab at the helm, the Republican party is coming apart. Any gains they make in November will, I believe, prove to be short-lived. And with long term demographic trends very much against them, I believe they are doomed. I've said it before, and I say it now: The Confederacy may, at long last, have succeeded in destroying the party of their archenemy, Abraham Lincoln.
If Democrats have been cowardly (and they certainly have), Republicans have been even worse: going along with the bigoted ravings of the only demographic that still believes in them. (There are a few notable exceptions. I about lost my cookies when I heard the other day that Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) defended the right of Muslims in New York City to build their cultural center. Really? Orrin Hatch?)
Well, I'm still holding out hope, however meager, that Republican gains will be less than expected. It is hard to imagine that President Obama would view a Republican-controlled House of Representatives as a positive development. But if President Obama, with his cool, detached demeanor wants to stay above the fray, feels it is safer to stand back and let it all come down, in spite of the zeal with which the political Left supported him in 2008, so be it.
In summary, my lefty comrades, if Obama isn't going to fight for us, perhaps we need to swallow hard, and start all over.
Let us see what November will reveal.
3 comments:
Hold on to your ideals, but actually notice reality too.
http://hopefulmuser.blogspot.com/2010/03/ideology-and-pragmatism.html
Part of the problem is that the "huge legislative successes" you cite are only "successes" insofar as the Democrats accomplished them. Their value is realized solely within the partisan political arena, where "healthcare reform" can be proudly worn on one's sleeve in some slick campaign advertisement. When it comes to actually addressing the crises with which the country is dealing, or improving the lot of the average American, these "successes" can at best be considered poor half- or quarter-measures. This is why the Democrats' approval rating is so low. Not because they are "too liberal" and have done too much - the Tea Party and their ilk account for a scant 29% of the electorate - but because they have not done enough. Americans want a party that will FIGHT FOR THEM, and they're not likely to get one anytime soon.
It is very important to note the media response to the generic ballot polls.
At the time this entry was posted, the Gallup poll showed the Republican with a 10% advantage - perhaps the largest they had ever had. This poll predictably generated a cavalcade of Republican gloating and Democratic hand-wringing. No mention, of course, was made of the fact that the Gallup poll was an outlier and that other polls showed the two parties essentially tied.
Fast forward to this week, when the latest Gallup poll shows the Republicans and Democrats deadlocked at 46% each. Predictably, all we hear from the media are crickets chirping.
If the Republican surge to a 10 point lead was headline news, one would think a 10 point collapse over such a short time would also be headline news. Unless the collapse doesn't promulgate the desired message...
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