The good news is that the "tsunami" predicted by the rightwingers didn't occur. Several of the looniest rightwing candidates lost (Paladino, O'Donnell, "Angle," the guy who likes to dress up as a Nazi, etc.) and the grizzlies didn't do so well either (Whitman, Fiorino, Angle, O'Donnell again, etc.).
But I heard some of the right's losers last night and this morning and they still don't get how democracy works. Paladino who got wiped out by Cuomo in what was a true landslide kept talking about what "the people" wanted was his ideas and his attitudes and his perspective, as if he'd won! And O'Donnell, who also got beaten badly, kept talking about how it was someone else's fault and it wasn't her ideas that got beaten but instead they had actually won because she got crushed by a man supported by Obama (!?) in her usual dippy contradictory garbled way.
So now there's some new faces in Congress who believe that taxes have to be cut, but will they acknowledge that they have been cut by Obama and the Democrats for "the middle class" and working people? Or will they continue to hypocritically play the propaganda game and claim the Dems raised taxes? And will they be willing to cut the budget by cutting military bases around the world and bringing to an end both wars we're still fighting?
If they truly want to make the federal government smaller, as only Democratic administrations have done in my lifetime, and cut taxes for the poor and working class while making the wealthy pay at least their basic fair share, as only Democratic administrations have done in my lifetime, will they actually be willing to stand up to the billionaire corporate moguls who funded the ads and campaigns and rightwing think tanks and Tea Party organizing efforts, etc. whose control of politicians in general, but rightwing Republican ones in particular, has caused most of our problems? Or be willing to get that done with the Democrats they will need to do it?
Whadda you think.
[PS: And here's one of the best responses to the election, from Maureen Dowd in today's NY Times.]
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3 comments:
Hi Michael,
Sixty plus house seats and 6 senate seats ain't chopped liver. It is the biggest swing since we was in first grade and that was a while ago. There are lessons for the Tea Party. The fact that Harry Reid escaped in an inviroment that has Nevada suffering from 14% unemployment, shows that the Tea Party must be more careful in the primary process. It is also good that the threat of further expansion of Obamanomics is over. The only question is how fast his damaging programs will be repealed.
PS Michael, I have enjoyed the jousting the last few years, even though you have been a reluctant host. The repartee with you, Robert, Butch, Miles and Caitlan and even John Lally who seemed to have vanished in the ethernet has been a lot more fun than if this were a conservative site and we were just agreeing with each other. I wish you and your family a great holiday season and a happy new year. I may stop back in the next election cycle, but for now goodby.
While Maureen Dowd is not my favorite columnist (her one-sentence paragraphs and attempts at humor seem lazy to me), I'm glad she and hopefully others are acknowledging the caliber of people elected against Barack Obama's.
At them moment, however, most of my anger is for the Democratic political machine. They do an absolutley horrible job of getting their message out. And don't get me started on their inability fight back against Republican strategies.
I hear you K. My friend Tom says Obama is like Ali, rope-a-doping, taking the attacks to prove he can and tire his opponents and then come back strong, which he still may do in two years. But to my mind he should have come on more like Mike Tyson right from the beginning and gone for the knockout when he had the Republicans on the ropes (i.e. investigated and prosecuted all their wrongdoing as well as those who created the financial mess etc.).
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