Sunday, June 25, 2017

"Another Soul-Sucking Disappointment"

Democrats thought they had it won. They were convinced that they would win Tom Price’s Congressional seat in the Georgia runoff election last week. They were wrong. They lost. Now is the time for soul-searching. Because, if Democrats are good at anything, it’s soul searching.

While not the first to weigh in, Maureen Dowd has gotten her groove back in today’s column:

The Democrats just got skunked four to nothing in races they excitedly thought they could win because everyone they hang with hates Trump.

If Trump is the Antichrist, as they believe, then Georgia was going to be a cakewalk, and Nancy Pelosi was going to be installed as speaker before the midterms by acclamation. But it turned into another soul-sucking disappointment.

I’m not so sure what the Antichrist has to do with cakewalks—shifting narratives—but Democrats were persuaded that young attractive centrist Jon Ossoff would easily beat Karen Handel. He didn’t. He didn't even live in the district.

Dowd contacted Rahm Emanuel, to learn how to win elections:

“We congenitally believe that our motives are pure and our goals are right,” Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, told me. “Therefore, we should win by default.” But, he added dryly: “You’ve got to run a good campaign. In elections, politics matter. Oooh, what a surprise.”

Apparently, Rahm has forgotten the other rule of politics: when you have power you have to govern effectively. The man presiding over the killing fields of Chicago, within a state that has been bankrupted by years of Democratic governance, does not serve as a role model for effective governance.

If Democrats do not think that it matters, they are living in their own fairy tale. Dowd explains it well:

Democrats cling to an idyllic version of a new progressive America where everyone tools around in electric cars, serenely uses gender-neutral bathrooms and happily searches the web for the best Obamacare options. In the Democrats’ vision, people are doing great and getting along. It is the opposite of Trump’s dark diorama of carnage and dystopia — but just as false a picture of America.

True enough, there is enough dystopia in districts that voted for Donald Trump. That’s why they voted for Donald Trump. But, if you are looking for a real dystopia, put Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago on your itinerary.

7 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

The Democrat's "idyllic version of a new progressive America" appears real and compelling in the new virtual world of Facebook. And it regularly surprises me when I find yet another person I know who projects "everything is well" to the world, while when you get details behind the scenes, you see everything isn't well, but covered over by ever growing personal debt.

And while debt is my biggest measure of our modern failure to thrive honestly, people "fix" their problems about feeling bad about not being able to live honestly, by legal and illegal drugs to numb their awareness of the holes they are digging.

Neither party is capable of fixing a problem people don't want to talk about. The republicans perhaps used to be the party of economic realism, but the debt game won them over too, probably starting in the 1980s as easy credit became available.

It does seem like problems have no political solutions any more, so the republicans best accept this truth, and just see the answer is self-interest and convincing others they're better off if the rich have all constraints removed.

The strength of the republicans now might be along with saying "punish the bad people", they're also saying "personal responsibilty" is the answer. And at least there's some pride in that that the Democrat's "personal dignity" to get free stuff can't answer.

trigger warning said...

"The strength of the republicans now might be along with saying 'punish the bad people'"

"In 1994, President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which offered states billions in funding for new prisons – but only if they adopted 'truth in sentencing laws' that would reduce prisoners’ eligibility for parole. The law also established mandatory life-sentences for people convicted of a third violent felony, among other punitive measures. By the end of the Clinton presidency, the number of people in America’s prisons rose by nearly 60%, according to the Brennan Center for Justice."
--- MSNBC

103rd (19944) Congress:
Senate President - Al Gore (D)
Senate President Pro tem - Robert Byrd (D, former Klansman)
Speaker - T Foley (D)
House Crime Bill Sponsor: J Brooks (D)

Hillary Clinton demanding we bring gangs of "superpredators" with no empathy "to heel"...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ALXulk0T8cg

But what difference, at this point, does it make? Damn Republicans.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Rahmbo is correct... the Democrats aren't allowing a self-created phony "crisis" go to the waste.

I'd like to know which of Ossof's positions are "centrist." There's nothing there but ideological conformity. It's like Obama being described as a moderate. There's nothing moderate about him... or Ossoff.

Whenever a mainstream Democrat or Leftist publication describes a Democrat as "moderate" or "centrist," I become curious about what the candidate's positions are. It's like saying Andrew Sullivan or David Brooks are "conservative" writers.

The Democrats look at too much social media... Facebook is their echo chamber. They believe what they read. The rest of us have to work. And no one at work wants to talk politics with these self-congratulatory ideological windbags because they have better things to do... like work. Who wants to get trapped in an endless argument with a closed-minded person who claims to be so open-minded? These well-mannered people vote Republican, and the pedantic Democrat (who imagines him/herself "moderate") is surprised. Shocked. SHOCKED!

They still can't get over Trump. This will continue. The mainstream media is now my Comedy Central, and they think they're hard news. The Left is humorless, which is why they're so funny. Schadenfreude.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

TW: Don't forget how Bill Clinton dealt with illegals:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=auZRVqrCLY8

Ares Olympus said...

TW and IAC, Indeed the Clintons have always been "Republican lite", tried to beat the Republicans at their own games.

Bill said "It's the economy stupid", and enthusiastically supported the ending of Glass–Steagall which enabled all banks to gamble with government-backed accounts. And lots more.

But the republicans have really outdone themselves with Trump. You almost wonder if a new lefty slick-willy will learn the Trump lesson, but be much better at this game of constantly sliding lies, confessions and distractions.

But for the moment, the republicans have won that strange race to the bottom.

trigger warning said...

"the Clintons have always been 'Republican lite'"

Gosh. That's deplorable.

:-D

Sam L. said...

"Because, if Democrats are good at anything, it’s soul searching." The problem is, they SUCK at soul finding. Because they don't believe in souls, or any of that religious stuff.