And stuff. It’s the Big Font, Small Ideas plan to take America back to the glorious days of the first Bush administration, with the fearmongering of the second thrown in just, you know, for fun.
Not surprisingly, written by total aholes.
The Democrats, natch, have absorbed the dominant narrative (Time magazine, which arrives at my house despite my best efforts to convince Mr. A it is trash, features a big cover headline: IT’S TEA PARTY TIME) that Republicans are going to sweep and there’s nothing to be doneso fuck it, let’s barricade the doors and drink because that meteorite is heading right for earth.
Democrats are worried that the enthusiasm gap among voters in the two states could be exacerbated if it appears by Election Day that Republicans are headed for blowout victories in the marquee races.
“There’s no question it’s a problem. When the top of the ticket is hurting, it absolutely makes it more difficult for a Democrat in a swing district to win,” said a Democratic strategist who has worked in both states. “Voters will be looking at the gubernatorial race and going, ‘If [Ohio Gov. Ted] Strickland is down 10 points, why the heck am I going to go out and vote?'”
You know what else dampens the fuck out of my enthusiasm? Talking all the goddamn time about how insufficiently enthusiastic I am. I mean, quit bitching about how I’m not excited and go fucking do some stuff to get me excited. God. I know political blogs are wonk-city and strategy is all we talk about, but so far, as a voter I haven’t seen anything but strategy talk either. And that strategy talk sucks. Meanwhile, you have a Republican-dominated media determined to push the agenda that Republicans are resurgent and on a comeback and such, supported by these awesome Tea Party folks and their fantastic new party that is sweeping the nation. There’s no pushback. There’s no answer.
There’s no saying look, have we done everything we could do? Fuck no, it’s only been two years since we had a president who wasn’t a mad boy king, plus his friends all wrecked the economy, not that it was ever that awesome anyway. In response, Republicans want to take away the few ways we all still take care of each other. If you get sick, there will be no health care for you. If you lose your job, you won’t be able to collect unemployment for more than ten minutes. When you get old, your pension and your social security will be unaffordable because we have wars to fight instead. And if you should get injured fighting one of those wars, just move somewhere warm where being homeless is fun. We’re all pissed off everything’s not fixed yet, but when a plumber’s only half-done repairing the plumbing he told you would be done by now, you don’t fire him and hire an alchemist.
Is it the midterms, is that what this is? In 2002 it was Timid City, please don’t hurt us Mr. Republican, I’ll be very very good. It was hunker down in the face of the horror, and give people a choice between gutless and senseless, which is how we ended up with Norm Coleman and Saxby Fucking Chambliss and other stuff that got elected just because it had an R after its name.
But then in 2006, after, natch, Bush was so fucked there was no turning back anyway, Democrats grew a pair and started presenting a solid Not This message, and people responded to being able to vote for real live grown-ups who had something to say by doing so. One would think the party would take a goddamn lesson, but they seem to have stopped listening to their instincts and have gone back to listening to Chris Matthews’ racist uncles and stuff people say on the Sunday shows.
I know this is all I seem to say these days, but: Schmucks.
A.