This is one of the best written indictments of the legacy of Reagan and Conservativism that I think I've ever read.
One of the things that has disappointed me the most about the Democratic party in this election is that they've basically been saying that the Bush/Cheney/McCain policies have failed. It's much MUCH bigger than that. Conservatism has failed.
Look at them now. They're all libertarians until the markets start to fail. Suddenly they're essentially reading Marx and nationalizing industries. Like Banking.
Well, if we can nationalize Banking, why not Health Care?
It's fascinating to watch how McCain/Palin are trying to frame this endgame. What they seem to be doing is to try to link alleged voter fraud with Obama, and at the same time trying to frame themselves as 'the underdog' in media coverage. So what this is actually saying, for those who have half a brain and remember the last two elections, and know about all the voter caging that's going on, what this is actually telegraphing, is that this is the pretext that they're going to use to try to steal the election. Again.
I don't think it's going to work this time. What they haven't counted on is that essentially in the last two elections the only reason this kind of thing has worked is that it's come down to one or two battleground states, and the margins have been so slim, that the Republicans can get away with vote tampering shenanigans, especially in states where they have control of the legislature and other offices.
What Obama has been doing, which is particularly smart, is fighting what's called a 50 State Strategy (Looking at the country at a county level, most counties are purple, rather than blue or red, with most elections being won by a slim margin of victory). Essentially, he's had so many resources from building an actual movement, that he's been able to mobilize in what should be safe Republican territory, according to received wisdom, putting the Republicans on the defensive, and making them spend precious resources defending said 'safe' territory. At this point, especially because of the total clusterfuck that is the economy, Obama is leading McCain with 'independent voters' by double digits. This is a good thing.
I predict that it's NOT going to be close, despite what the media is trying to say about how voters supposedly lie about supporting a black candidate but when they're in the ballot box they're secretly racists. I really don't think that's going to be a factor. At all.
I think most people are so sick of the direction that this country is going in, of the over 4000 US casualties in Iraq, of the massive COST of a war that was based on a lie, of a failing economy, people losing their jobs and houses, while corporations ship their jobs overseas, but the rich are still rich. (I could talk about the beatitudes, and how it's easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man... well, whatever, you get the point.)
I don't think it's going to be close. I think it's going to be a landslide.
As a result of the Second Gilded Age and its serf-like subservience to big capital, most corporations in the US don't pay any income taxes, despite doing $2.5 trillion annually in business.
The Reagan Revolution included the stupid idea that you can cut taxes, starve government, abolish regulation of securities, banks, & etc., and still grow the economy. The irony is that capitalist markets need to be regulated to avoid periodically becoming chaotic (as in 'chaos theory,') but the people who most benefit from regulation are most zealous in attempting to abolish or blunt it.
What those policies did was create the preconditions for a long-term bubble or set of bubbles that benefited (for a while) the wealthiest 3 million Americans and harmed everyone else.
One of the things that has disappointed me the most about the Democratic party in this election is that they've basically been saying that the Bush/Cheney/McCain policies have failed. It's much MUCH bigger than that. Conservatism has failed.
Look at them now. They're all libertarians until the markets start to fail. Suddenly they're essentially reading Marx and nationalizing industries. Like Banking.
Well, if we can nationalize Banking, why not Health Care?
It's fascinating to watch how McCain/Palin are trying to frame this endgame. What they seem to be doing is to try to link alleged voter fraud with Obama, and at the same time trying to frame themselves as 'the underdog' in media coverage. So what this is actually saying, for those who have half a brain and remember the last two elections, and know about all the voter caging that's going on, what this is actually telegraphing, is that this is the pretext that they're going to use to try to steal the election. Again.
I don't think it's going to work this time. What they haven't counted on is that essentially in the last two elections the only reason this kind of thing has worked is that it's come down to one or two battleground states, and the margins have been so slim, that the Republicans can get away with vote tampering shenanigans, especially in states where they have control of the legislature and other offices.
What Obama has been doing, which is particularly smart, is fighting what's called a 50 State Strategy (Looking at the country at a county level, most counties are purple, rather than blue or red, with most elections being won by a slim margin of victory). Essentially, he's had so many resources from building an actual movement, that he's been able to mobilize in what should be safe Republican territory, according to received wisdom, putting the Republicans on the defensive, and making them spend precious resources defending said 'safe' territory. At this point, especially because of the total clusterfuck that is the economy, Obama is leading McCain with 'independent voters' by double digits. This is a good thing.
I predict that it's NOT going to be close, despite what the media is trying to say about how voters supposedly lie about supporting a black candidate but when they're in the ballot box they're secretly racists. I really don't think that's going to be a factor. At all.
I think most people are so sick of the direction that this country is going in, of the over 4000 US casualties in Iraq, of the massive COST of a war that was based on a lie, of a failing economy, people losing their jobs and houses, while corporations ship their jobs overseas, but the rich are still rich. (I could talk about the beatitudes, and how it's easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man... well, whatever, you get the point.)
I don't think it's going to be close. I think it's going to be a landslide.
posted by Peter at 7:56 AM
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