Gaming the "Election"

 

[Note: the truck trailer is now unloaded; the buildings are chock full of schtuff that we're now wondering why we brought out here, there's a new bed in the north bedroom (and we sleep like coddled proverbials), and the cat is loving it all...]

More and more it looks like the Rs are going to go ahead and try to steal the "election" tomorrow outright. They want the Big Chair even though they are proving their incompetence to do anything positive with it day after dreary day of the Long Campaign.

Of course I realize that all this was set up years ago, and that two years ago, the Ds essentially conceded the Congressional mid-terms by not carrying out policies that would actually be beneficial to the public, and by not mounting a serious campaign at the state level -- where the Democratic wipe out was practically total.

This allowed numerous radical Rs to get into office in statehouses and legislatures all over the country, not simply in those infamous "battleground" states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They promptly set about radical rule and the delegitimization of democracy. For the most part, they were not seriously opposed by Ds though there was much pro-forma sturm und drang to be sure. From appearances, at any rate, this was a rather obvious Let It Happen series of events.

Radical rule and delegitimization of democracy included the infamous acts of Scott Walker in Wisconsin, but more importantly for the future, they involved gerrymandering districts and emplacing often severe restrictions on voting and voting rights, unlike any seen since the days of Jim Crow. The objective, of course, is to make it difficult or impossible for Ds to be elected in many disctricts, and to ensure that millions of otherwise qualified (and largely D) voters are prevented from voting, and if they do somehow manage to vote to ensure that their votes aren't counted.

The scheme was pretty obvious from the outset, and yet there was very little pushback from those who actually could have done something about it. By the time these radical measures were in place, it was too late to do much but complain about it and go to court over it. Courts that generally defer to elected officials.

Under the circumstances, this failure two years ago, to hold on to or even make gains at the state level meant that the High Pooh Bahs among the Dems were either guilty of gross political malpractice, or they were in on the deal from the get, and they let what happened happen for their own purposes.

There is a conventional wisdom in Left Blogistan that the Dems are just so seriously incompetent, they do not know what they are doing, yadda yadda, and if they'd only "listen" to certain bloggers-cum-political consultants, everything would be fine. I don't believe this.

The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the country, and they absolutely do know what they are doing and and they also know how to win elections. They're masters at it. They are numerically the predominant party and if they chose to, they could predominate in office (as they have done frequently). From time to time, however, they choose to play dumb and let the Rs run rampant, as we've seen them do for the last 20 years and more -- at least since the election of Bill Clinton to the White House.

I have no idea what their reasoning is, but they have been quite determined to let the Rs do pretty much whatever they want, with predictable disastrous results for the rest of us.

And it looks like they are doing it again. If the "election" is stolen, I have no illusions that the Dems in office will fight. They will do what they did in 2000 and accommodate the thieves. If by some chance Obama is declared the winner (these things are largely determined by media "calls" after all) the Rs will fight tooth and claw to take it from him, going so far, I don't doubt, to initiate another coup.

The strange thing is that Obama is really one of them (an R is D clothing) and they know it. He's no  model of any Dem that I could recognize. I was willing to put up with this "R in D clothing" business with Howard Dean because it was important to me that the imperial warriorism of the Busheviks be ended and he served as one of the loudest voices against the Iraq nonsense. But I had no illusions that somehow Dean was this Big Progressive - Liberal he was being made out to be. He was and is essentially a Rockefeller Republican. Better than the radicals, but still an R at heart.

It was pretty clear the same was true with Clinton and then Obama. But Obama is tending more toward Reagan Republican than Rockefeller (it's his youth, don't you know) and his constant accommodations with the Rs are dispiriting to say the least. It means there is currently no major party that represents the interests of the People; it means that there is no Democratic Party in the ideological sense. Only two versions of the Republican Party -- radical or Reaganite. (Compared to today's radical Republicans, Reagan was practically a full on Communist).

The radicals see their main chance, and I suspect they are going to take it unless there is some sort of high level intervention.

Tomorrow will be interesting....