"It is hateful to me to retell a story over again when it has been well told..." -- Homer, "The Odyssey"
Well, doesn't this all look rather...unremarkable?
It's all so eerily familiar.
A week ago, there were prophecies of Red Tsunamis; Nancy Pelosi would be bundled up and sent to a retirement home; Chuck Schumer would revert to his normal, groveling state in the face of a GOP-led Senate; 4/5ths of America would be living under the warm, golden sunlight of a revitalized republican regime.
What rot.
Instead, the American Public, true-to-form, went ahead and decided the very bestest thing evah was to ensure that no one wins...especially themselves.
This has been par for the course. It is a recurring nightmare in which the cast never changes, only the scenery.
Before I begin, I need to make the following statement:
The Overlord is not a Poli Sci major; I do not claim any especial expertise in the subject of elections (and the fraud that accompanies them). I cannot tell you with any exactitude how votes get cast or how they get counted. I'm not equipped to delve very deeply into the arcane "science" of political polling or statistical sampling. I can only tell you what I, personally, hear, see, experience and think, and on the basis of this seemingly thin, anecdotal evidence, the idea of a Red Wave seemed all but a foregone conclusion...
...until the idiots were let loose to do their worst.
And just when you begin to believe that "worse" can't get any worse, then the idiots get to work cobbling a new-and-improved worse out of the cloud of moron that surrounds them, and stun you with this new golem of fucktard that saps any faith you may have had remaining in humanity.
It has been said of Joe Biden to "never underestimate his ability to fuck things up", but Biden is merely the result of leaving the important business of governing a country to a class of self-important nitwits who were selected by self-absorbed, woefully-uninformed halfwits. The origin of the fuckup resides in the greater mass of nose-picking, knuckle-dragging dumbbells who exercise the franchise, and do so with little actual thought given to the importance -- and power -- such a choice bestows.
Its all so Kipling-esque:
"As it will be in the future, it was at the Birth of Man -
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, the Brave New World begins."
A possible translation: If you leave the choice of how to run a country to dullards, you get what you deserve.
Another possible translation: If you leave the business of running a country in the hands of people who have a proven track record of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, don't cry when they're running the same shopworn, predictable play on 4th-and-1 in OT ...and then losing the game.
Then, like any poor coach, finding excuses everywhere for failure except within themselves.
The navel gazing began almost immediately, and the same laundry list of excuses and scapegoats all made their expected appearance, like the Snoopy balloon and Santa Claus do during the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
For fuck's sake, stop it.
What happened last week is simply one more instance of what has been happening for most of my adult life when it comes to the republican party: they consistently show an unerring ability to misread the room.
What did the population tell the GOP last week?
It told the GOP that Rick Scott, in anticipation of a massive victory, less than a week out from voting, making noises about Social Security was a bad idea.
It told the GOP that Lindsey Graham, also in anticipation of spiking the football, that introducing a bill to put limits on abortion literally days before the election, when the Left was making Abortion Rights a central aspect of their counter-campaign, was a bad idea.
It told Donald Trump that its about time to gracefully exit the stage, and true to form, Trump failed to do so. Trump does not do "grace", nor does he do "exits" because the man can't help himself. Attacking Ron DeSantis and other -- successful -- republicans just before
It told the GOP that it has a problem connecting and communicating with the stupid and vainglorious youth of this country who believe that they have the market cornered in virtue and are entitled to every cookie in the bakery, just because they want it. Short of vicious and frequent beatings, I'm not exactly certain how to correct this, either.
It told the GOP that even when you do offer something different, "different" still shouldn't (figuratively) include marching the fags to the ovens, making (assumed) threatening moves towards vaginas, or producing a slate of candidates who often don't know what century they're living in. That the ability of a certain person to stick it to the media with a quick wit, or to talk a stroke victim into revealing his limitations, apparently, is often not enough to overcome people's innate fears over their own personal, and immediate, status (I'm looking at you, Kari Lake, Dr. Oz and Tudor Dixon...among others).
The Public likes the idea of lower taxes. less regulation and less dictatorship from Washington, but it still would like to be bribed, from time to time. In this case, the Nation -- particularly on the right -- sold out to a Cult of Personality for very little, got even less than then the first time this happened, and somehow manages to expect even more in future.
It wanted "personalities" that embodied their grievances -- the sort of people who could articulate the specific pangs of resentment, doubt, fear, and dumbfuck residing within the Average Flyover Hayseed, which is why there was (and still is) a river of drool running on behalf of anyone or anything associated with Trump, and why the Red Wave was ultimately merely a Red Drizzle. That such personalities then fail to win very winnable races against extraordinarily weak competition shows a willingness on behalf of the follower to go down with the ship that would have impressed the Imperial Japanese at Midway.
The idea that a person who embodies and represents Jethro and Cooter's zeitgeist should also demonstrate some ability to overcome a very weak democrat regime and its feeble response to The Current Situation (More of the same! Only with more spending and trampling of Civil Rights!), apparently never occurred to anyone. To even make a cogent argument in that endeavor wasn't even thought of, apparently.
In the three essays that follow this one, I will attempt to unpack what I think went wrong, why it went wrong, and how I think we fix this persistent and pernicious problem(s) the GOP has when it comes to securing the power to fundamentally (emphasis on 'mental') returning (not 'transforming') 'Murica to its rightful status.
It is like the political version of Battered Wife Syndrome.
We'll start with Personalities. We'll then get on to the fundamental distinction between a Vote and a Ballot, and finish up with the usual litany of post-defeat shibboleths that get trotted out every time and which reinforce the myth that republicans are always, somehow, victims, and not co-conspirators in their own murder.
Stay tuned...
9 comments:
I think one must also acknowledge the fact that the establishment always has its own interests at heart. The Republicans deliberately pulled out of the critical campaigns and I wouldn’t be surprised if the legislative proposals about abortion and social security were deliberate also, just to alienate parts of the electorate. The establishment didn’t want a bunch of MAGA representatives and senators tipping their apple cart and changing things as it would cut into their grift and erode their power. Yes, I think this was a deliberate throwing of the election simply to keep the status quo for the McRepublicans.
While I agree with most of what was written, Anonymous, I have to make this point:
MAGA ceased being a political movement and became just one more Cult of personality, and worse, a personality that a great many people are tired of hearing from.
In the next essay I will talk about the concept of "Trump Fatigue" and how it turned a lot of people in these parts (New York) off (*the same people who flipped five seats to red and almost dethroned the Accidental Governor, btw) without so much as a mention of the Donald.
PoliSci major (one of them, anyway) here. Point of order: a Poli Sci major can't really tell you any of those things either. Also, neither can pollsters apparently.
And the crystal ball industry suffers accordingly, GMay.
Maybe they're using Chinese crystal?
Your arguments might hold for a status quo election, which midterms rarely are and this one in particular. In this case, you have to believe in one of three scenarios: a) Republicans spooked a large percentage of the 80% of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track and who would rather continue with Casey Jones in the locomotive; b)the Democrats were supported by large groups of people who are wards of the state, augmented by large groups of societal contributors who voted against their economic self interest; or c) the process was tainted. Arguing that Trump derangement could lead anyone to vote for a Fetterman is too lazy for you Matthew.
That (a) would be an easy argument to prove -- if that was the argument I'm about to make, and if you considered modern polling to be anywhere near accurate. I'm not going to make either case.
b is spot-fricking on.
c is extremely plausible, given some of the facts and circumstances that we have already seen/experienced, vis. Katie Hobbs non-recusal, '2,000 Miles', machines tested the day before suddenly failing, etc.
Be patient, Unknown: I'm gonna get there, and then I'll be more than happy to discuss the whole thing with you.
The thing that saved the Dems' bacon on this election, insofar as it was saved, was abortion. Like it or not, even a lot of women who don't want to have an abortion themselves don't want abortion outlawed.
What if I tell you...
That the "left" and the "right" wing belong
To the same bird.
@mtness:
I would say "where have you been?"...as you're late to the party...
...and then direct you here:
https://spectator.org/americas-ruling-class/
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