The "End of the World" Election
Rick Santorum is out of the race for the GOP nomination. Whether you believe he dropped out because of his daughter's illness or you believe he dropped out in order to avoid an embarrassing primary loss in his home state, the GOP race is officially over. Yes, I know Newt Gingrich is still in it until the convention, and he's convinced that all of Santorum's supporters will go to him, enabling him to compete with Mitt Romney... but that's just delusional. So now we enter what is sometimes referred to as the "silly season," that period between the end of the primary races and the party conventions at the end of the summer when nobody really cares about the presidential election and the candidates only make headlines for inane reasons. Then again, we could also say we've BEEN in the "silly season" for quite a while now...
I say this because most of what passes for "political commentary" these days is nothing but silly. I'm not just talking about all the to-do over birth control that followed the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy. I don't merely mean the GOP candidates flipping out when President Obama commented on the shooting of Trayvon Martin. I mean the ongoing overuse of hyperbole-as-opinion that has been attached to this presidential election, virtually since not long after President Obama took his oath of office. I'm not sure if you know this, but judging by the comments of those on both sides of the aisle, the world will come to an end if either major presidential candidate gets elected. Let's just call it for what it is... there are several different scenarios playing out right now, depending on who you talk to, but in all of them, there is the distinct possibility that November 6th will usher in the endtimes.
Left-wing Democrat: If Mitt Romney wins the election, America is over. Corporations will own this country, the government will only cater to rich White men, the rights of women and minorities will be rolled back to the 19th century (or earlier), all unions will cease to exist, and the Earth will be destroyed.
Right-wing Republican: If Barack Obama is re-elected, America is over. Obama will turn this country into a socialist/communist dictatorship, taxes will skyrocket, the government will own the country... and then there is the "secret agenda" the president hasn't told us about. China will take over when we collapse under the weight of our debt, if the terrorists don't blow us all sky-high first.
Tea Party Republican: No matter who wins the election, America is over, because both major candidates favor socialist programs like RomneyCare and we will collapse under the weight of our debt.
Occupy Wall Street Member: No matter who wins the election, America is over, because corporations already own this country (and both parties), and the only people who can be elected president are rich people with billionaire donors like the Koch brothers and George Soros.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is all happening in 2012, because to hear the rhetoric going around, you'd think there was a vast majority of Americans who think the Mayans were right. Of course, part of the reason for all of this is that the Republican Party has gone so far to the right that there is legitimate fear of all the things they could do with the White House. At least when the House introduced bill after bill that had no shot in hell of becoming law, it was only for political gamesmanship and we didn't have to worry about it. Meanwhile, the Democrats do us no favors by insisting that there is no reason to even INTRODUCE a budget for next year. The president does us no favors by stating that it would be "unprecedented" for the Supreme Court of the United States to use its 200-year tradition of judicial review to throw out the 2010 health care law. And trotting out the "War on Women" label is no better than right-wingers harping about a "culture war."
DNC chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes to Philadelphia to attack Mitt Romney... WHY? Yes, he's there because he actually has a primary to compete in for the nomination. What reason does Rep. Schultz have to be there? Other than to try to create some sort of "shadow campaign" to counter everything Romney has to say... and to what end? It has no effect on what the Republicans who go to the polls on the 24th will do, and most of the country right now couldn't care less what she has to say... or Romney for that matter. When the RNC chairman said that the "War on Women" label was as ridiculous as "war on caterpillars," the Obama camp actually took offense and claimed that the Republicans equated women with caterpillars! In WHAT REALITY are you living that you would think that to be a logical statement?!?
The latest shot in the foot came from the DNC's Hilary Rosen, who in a former career was the woman who brought you million-dollar lawsuits against grandmothers and college students who downloaded songs when she was the head of the RIAA. She claimed that Romney's wife Ann "never worked a day in her life" because she was a stay-at-home mom. That brought immediate outrage from moms everywhere and was actually the first evidence that the Dems may have pushed this "War on Women" bit a little too far. But the problem is that when you are a hyperpartisan, you can NEVER go too far if you think it will help you gain power.
That's how you get people like Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who had the audacity to suggest that in this age of zero cooperation between the parties that there was actually TOO MUCH BIPARTISANSHIP going on. Mourdock said that if he were elected, he would devote the majority of his time NOT to dealing with the problems that the people elected him to solve, NOT to representing his constituents in Congress, but to GETTING REPUBLICANS MORE POWER. Well, at least someone finally admits that this is what our politicians care more about these days, but the scary part is that as a Tea Party-SuperPAC fave, he's actually got a real chance at taking down yet another "establishment" Republican, Richard Lugar, a man who once co-sponsored a bill with then-Senator Obama regarding downsizing nuclear arsenals in the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, a lot of Lugar's vulnerability comes from the fact that he just turned 80, but THIS is the guy you want to replace him? The sad thing is that if Mourdock does win the Indiana GOP primary, the odds are pretty good that the seat will go to Democrat Joe Donnelly, whose views are pretty much in lockstep with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, two people who similarly think only about what will get their side more power.
The worst part about all of this is that thanks to redistricting, which once again seeks to make the red areas redder and the blue areas bluer, things stand to get even worse regardless of who wins in most national races. Although it's tempting to say we are still every bit the 50-50 nation we've been since 2000, I maintain that it's a shrinking Left, a shrinking Right, and a growing middle that has had ENOUGH of hyperpartisanship without solutions. Neither party has the people on their side, but they don't realize this, so they keep claiming that the other party will destroy the country, thinking it will scare people enough to vote for the "good guys." I don't think that this upcoming election is the end of everything... I think it's even more dire in that it only seems to promise more of the same.
I say this because most of what passes for "political commentary" these days is nothing but silly. I'm not just talking about all the to-do over birth control that followed the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy. I don't merely mean the GOP candidates flipping out when President Obama commented on the shooting of Trayvon Martin. I mean the ongoing overuse of hyperbole-as-opinion that has been attached to this presidential election, virtually since not long after President Obama took his oath of office. I'm not sure if you know this, but judging by the comments of those on both sides of the aisle, the world will come to an end if either major presidential candidate gets elected. Let's just call it for what it is... there are several different scenarios playing out right now, depending on who you talk to, but in all of them, there is the distinct possibility that November 6th will usher in the endtimes.
Left-wing Democrat: If Mitt Romney wins the election, America is over. Corporations will own this country, the government will only cater to rich White men, the rights of women and minorities will be rolled back to the 19th century (or earlier), all unions will cease to exist, and the Earth will be destroyed.
Right-wing Republican: If Barack Obama is re-elected, America is over. Obama will turn this country into a socialist/communist dictatorship, taxes will skyrocket, the government will own the country... and then there is the "secret agenda" the president hasn't told us about. China will take over when we collapse under the weight of our debt, if the terrorists don't blow us all sky-high first.
Tea Party Republican: No matter who wins the election, America is over, because both major candidates favor socialist programs like RomneyCare and we will collapse under the weight of our debt.
Occupy Wall Street Member: No matter who wins the election, America is over, because corporations already own this country (and both parties), and the only people who can be elected president are rich people with billionaire donors like the Koch brothers and George Soros.
Perhaps it's fitting that this is all happening in 2012, because to hear the rhetoric going around, you'd think there was a vast majority of Americans who think the Mayans were right. Of course, part of the reason for all of this is that the Republican Party has gone so far to the right that there is legitimate fear of all the things they could do with the White House. At least when the House introduced bill after bill that had no shot in hell of becoming law, it was only for political gamesmanship and we didn't have to worry about it. Meanwhile, the Democrats do us no favors by insisting that there is no reason to even INTRODUCE a budget for next year. The president does us no favors by stating that it would be "unprecedented" for the Supreme Court of the United States to use its 200-year tradition of judicial review to throw out the 2010 health care law. And trotting out the "War on Women" label is no better than right-wingers harping about a "culture war."
DNC chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz goes to Philadelphia to attack Mitt Romney... WHY? Yes, he's there because he actually has a primary to compete in for the nomination. What reason does Rep. Schultz have to be there? Other than to try to create some sort of "shadow campaign" to counter everything Romney has to say... and to what end? It has no effect on what the Republicans who go to the polls on the 24th will do, and most of the country right now couldn't care less what she has to say... or Romney for that matter. When the RNC chairman said that the "War on Women" label was as ridiculous as "war on caterpillars," the Obama camp actually took offense and claimed that the Republicans equated women with caterpillars! In WHAT REALITY are you living that you would think that to be a logical statement?!?
The latest shot in the foot came from the DNC's Hilary Rosen, who in a former career was the woman who brought you million-dollar lawsuits against grandmothers and college students who downloaded songs when she was the head of the RIAA. She claimed that Romney's wife Ann "never worked a day in her life" because she was a stay-at-home mom. That brought immediate outrage from moms everywhere and was actually the first evidence that the Dems may have pushed this "War on Women" bit a little too far. But the problem is that when you are a hyperpartisan, you can NEVER go too far if you think it will help you gain power.
That's how you get people like Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who had the audacity to suggest that in this age of zero cooperation between the parties that there was actually TOO MUCH BIPARTISANSHIP going on. Mourdock said that if he were elected, he would devote the majority of his time NOT to dealing with the problems that the people elected him to solve, NOT to representing his constituents in Congress, but to GETTING REPUBLICANS MORE POWER. Well, at least someone finally admits that this is what our politicians care more about these days, but the scary part is that as a Tea Party-SuperPAC fave, he's actually got a real chance at taking down yet another "establishment" Republican, Richard Lugar, a man who once co-sponsored a bill with then-Senator Obama regarding downsizing nuclear arsenals in the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, a lot of Lugar's vulnerability comes from the fact that he just turned 80, but THIS is the guy you want to replace him? The sad thing is that if Mourdock does win the Indiana GOP primary, the odds are pretty good that the seat will go to Democrat Joe Donnelly, whose views are pretty much in lockstep with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, two people who similarly think only about what will get their side more power.
The worst part about all of this is that thanks to redistricting, which once again seeks to make the red areas redder and the blue areas bluer, things stand to get even worse regardless of who wins in most national races. Although it's tempting to say we are still every bit the 50-50 nation we've been since 2000, I maintain that it's a shrinking Left, a shrinking Right, and a growing middle that has had ENOUGH of hyperpartisanship without solutions. Neither party has the people on their side, but they don't realize this, so they keep claiming that the other party will destroy the country, thinking it will scare people enough to vote for the "good guys." I don't think that this upcoming election is the end of everything... I think it's even more dire in that it only seems to promise more of the same.
Labels: politics
posted by Dave | 11:31 PM
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