For all of the drama queen in Andrew Sullivan, he really nailed it the other day in regards to the current political landscape.
Obama's record is immensely impressive as I argued at some length here. He inherited an economy in free-fall; he put a bottom on it and over 4 million private sector jobs have been created since and the unemployment rate is actually lower than when he took office. It would be much lower if Republican governors had not been slashing government payrolls. He ended the war in Iraq; he has brought the Iranian economy to its knees; he decimated al Qaeda and found and killed Osama bin Laden; he enacted universal healthcare - an historic change that eluded even that political master, Bill Clinton.
What he didn't imagine and what I didn't imagine (and that Peter doesn't mention) is that the party that drove this country into the biggest fiscal, moral, diplomatic and military ditch since the 1970s would immediately turn around and, instead of constructively attempting to help in the worst recession since the 1930s, opted for total obstructionism and party before country. I think the GOP recognized the profound threat Obama represented, the magnitude of their failure, and have done all they could to stop him getting the second term he always needed to fulfill his promise and check them for a generation. They have failed, by and large. Which is why, of course, I felt so crushed after last week's debate. Obama allowed them to reset the narrative with lies that were left hanging as if unrebuttable. I've beaten him up enough. We all screw up. What matters is acknowledging the fuck-up and remembering to buck up. It's not any single failure that defines you, however great. It's how you respond.
I didn't think that the Republican Party would behave the way they have either. They don't want to do what's best for this country because they don't want to be proved wrong.
This is the threat that the Right faces and they know that even the president somehow manages to lose this election, the writing is on the wall, demographically speaking. As Senator Lindsey Graham recently said, "The demographics race we’re losing badly. We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.."
In short, they are going to have to change.
6 comments:
Actually, if one were to look at birth rates, it would be more accurate to say that liberals are importing their voters.
Demographics is about as hard a science as you can get; you either have babies or you don't. And liberals don't.
And it is easy to import Freeloaders. Give them a free lunch and they vote for you forever no matter how stupid the policies are.
So, I take it that's a no on the change thing, eh fellas? I guess you are going to have lose election after election before the message sinks in.
And that's even if the president loses on November 6th. Because you are fooling yourselves if you think Mitt Romney is going to do anything any differently. If he wins, he's going to have to solve problems and your ideology doesn't really offer any solutions.
problems? there shouldnt be any problems, obama was going to part the waters and solve them all.
Obama's record is immensely impressive as I argued at some length here.
Well it is impressive to the fanboi's - and Sully is certainly one of those.
I'm glad you brought that up, sw. The idea that Obama was Moses is also part of the fictional Obama myth and, well, quite frankly sour grapes on the part of the Right.
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