A NEW POLITICAL DAY? WE’LL SEE…..
It’s the day after and the Republican Party is nursing a bad hangover after an even worse party. The GOP took it on the chin yesterday, losing control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994, and at this writing, just hanging even in the Senate–the outcome could end up 50-50 with a couple of independent voters to make it more interesting.
There’s no question that what we have been telling you for several years, that even a moron could comprehend, was that the Republicans did one helluva job shooting themselves in the foot in the last year–everything from internet pedopophilia, to evangelical apostasy, to taking bribes, to promulgating and holding onto the most cockaminny national security and foreign policy we’ve seen, perhaps ever, in American history. The Republican eminence grise, Karl Rove, who’s done well with his “screw the Democrat-bastards” approach, counting on the true believers from the “left behind” evangelicals to make the base higher, found this time that the accumulated sins of Republican hacks — from Iraq to Florida, from Texas to New York to Ohio– ended up costing the party dearly. The pie, to which GWB referred early on in his presidency, crumbled. Indeed, the Democrats merely had to behold stupidity, cupidity, and
Now we shall see what the Democrats can do with a president whose track record equals that of a mule with blinders. Bush will have to move to the centre, and as he does, perhaps the American misadventure in Afghanistan and Iraq will come to an end. It is ironic that the Democratic Party under Lyndon Johnson seemed in 1964 ready to embark on a long tenure……but then the Vietnam War and its consequences split the Democrats, made possible the election of Richard Nixon, and then provided the mythic need for a superhero to rescue a lost nation, a movie and TV actor named Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s influence has been huge, in turn foreshadowing the 1994 congressional Republican upheaval, and giving the present incumbent his John Wayne/Rambo view of just about everything. Now the Republicans are on the downside of the circadian rhythms of American politics, as control of Congress seems to shift every twelve or fourteen years. Conservative columnist George Will made this point last night on network TV, as if to say, why in the devil are you so surprised? But he was not smiling.
It’s delicious to see Illinois Republican Dennis Hastert, whose internal fleshy folds, hidden behind drapery-like suits remind one of Borat’s sidekick, stepping down in favour of California liberal Democrat Nancy Pelosi. It’s delicious to see sanctimonious Senator Rick Santorum get whipped. And one can say again about all the latter-day Elmer Gantrys, sorry but human nature being what it is……sin is ubiquitous, not just a Democratic tendency…..
Much more to say, of course, as the story remains unfinished. We think of Daniel Ortega’s victory in Nicaragua (he’s the Nixon of Central American politics?) — which came a day before the Republican disaster as a straw in the wind. Now it’s Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Ortega, with more social progressives on the horizon. Thank Bush and the Republicans again.
And if I may suggest the possibility that incumbents should be running scared everywhere, especially those who lack social vision, those who align themselves with money and commerce, those who seem more interested in buildings than people, and those who would run local politics without heeding the vox populi. Stay tuned……..