The future for the Party of No (PON) and Own Worst Enemy (OWE) was projected by The Heel on Hag’s GOP thoughts Friday when he (oops, could be a she or a variation) The Heel posted, “My gut feeling is that the left is lulling itself into this complacent notion of certainty about the GOPs end – or at the very least about the GOP’s inability to win the 2012 elections. 3.5 years is a long time my friend and a lot will happen. So far nobody can seriously be very impressed by the Dem’s performance and the people’s patience has a long way to be tested. It is ultimately the economy more than anything or anybody that will determine the next election.”
Under traditional political wisdom and history, he (for convenience, I am using he) is making a reasonable prediction. No question that the economy will be the most major determinant followed closely by health care reform. However, The Heel is not taking into consideration these four factors: OWE PON, changing voter demographics, the Internet, and young adult culture.
American voters, especially independents, showed in the 2008 election that they wanted major changes. Even though the M$M tried to confuse them, they understood that our government and congress has failed them. Independents are a growing in influence because they believe that both parties have failed them and are looking for which party or candidate might bring real improvements or at least be better than the other choices.
The leadership of the Republican Party although it is very difficult to know who the leaders are has essentially made a decision to be the PON. That decision makes their mission much easier for them because they don’t have to come up with any solutions and try to get bills passed. They can create any myth or coordinated mantra and need not worry about facts or truth. This provides great flexibility and allows rapid reaction including producing ad videos over night.
The Repug goal during the Obama reign is not to help the American people with their myriad of problems, it is to gain power back in the House (White and Congress) and Senate regardless of the cost to people who may suffer from this outrageous tactic of sabotage. When left alone Repugs are their OWE, so their strategy will backfire because Americans are going to suffer from a deep recession that will probably as Larry Summers said in a Thursday interview “be a jobless recovery.” If a decent health reform bill gets passed, it will be slow to implement and start making a real difference in people’s lives. There will be a lot of anger and resentment. People will look for who to blame.
The question becomes who will they blame more. When Americans become even more worn out by those in the Beltway who refuse to work together and help them, it seems very unlikely that they will blame the Democrats more than the Republicans because they have seen the continued attempts of Obama to forge bipartisanship and tireless effort to work many major problems simultaneously that he inherited.
The Repugs with a few individual exceptions seem to ignore the changing voter demographics in America. Calling Hispanic nominee Sotomayor a reverse racist does little to repair the damage done by the attacks on immigrants and refusal to even listen to John McCain or Bush 43 when they tried to pass more reasonable and humane legislation. Supporting the Birthers with legislation is just one more example how this almost white party keeps shooting itself in the foot and proving the OWE theory.
While the Repugs are very skillful with the M$M to the point that many Americans believe the M$M are a bunch of lefties and unfair to the Repugs, the Internet has made their lying and sabotage game much more risky. Americans who care about the truth can find it. Emails and careless comments are revealed and the President can cite them during a speech or press conference. This makes backroom secrets difficult to keep. Bloggers like Greenwald and so many others can expose the truth and can’t be shut down or compromised. If not given direct interviews or airing in the M$M, they still can provide M$M members with facts and logic that they can disseminate so the truth can prevail. There will come a point where the M$M will be superseded by bloggers in the dissemination of the truth or one could argue that it has already happened.
Finally we have the young adult culture. Those young adults who were carefully taught by their elders to believe in the Repug way will continue to love the Palins and Limbaughs and will never vote for Democrats. Some through education and meeting outsiders will awaken and realize how they are being played. However, many young adults have seen the error in livng the materialistic, selfish life and want to contribute to the community. They were very energized in the 2008 election and when they have witnessed how just electing a president is not enough, many will want to be active in making Washington “do it.” Like minorities, the Repugs have done little to attract young adults outside of their core believers.
I would be interested in your thoughts and predictions. Here are three articles germane to our discussion:
Obama’s Health Care Struggle — Waterloo or Water Down?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/25
Ain’t Nothing Centrist About Them
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/25-2
He Promised Change, but Is This Too Much, Too Soon?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/AR2009072501053.html