Disconnect and denial
As the movement conservatives in this country continue their rapid descent into the political dumpster, we’re starting to see a bit of soul-searching going on as to why the movement failed. While introspection is good, it’s hardly beneficial when they get it wrong. A lot of Republicans are just convinced now that their losses in 2006 and their upcoming bloodbath this year are simply because of the lack of fiscal restraint. Iraq, pandering to hateful bigotry and ignorance, suppression of science, regressive economic policies, accelerated environmental degradation, loss of privacy and civil liberties and a president less popular than and intelligent as a steaming pile of dogshit apparently had nothing to do with it.
Noah Noah at The Right’s Field points this out, referencing a recent article in the WSJ by frormer Club for Bloat head Pat Toomey. These people don’t get it, and are deluded about the popularity of their ideology. And the media narrative is still quite complicit, as shown in this rather baffling poll by CNN last year that claims that :
A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, “government is not the answer to our problems — government is the problem.”
I wasn’t aware that “most Americans” ever agreed with that premise. This is even more odd, considering poll after poll show a clear majority of people support a single-payer healthcare system (here and here, as well) and increased environmental protection, for example, and in many cases this support is very strong, as indicated in a Harris poll (that was even cited in the WSJ, of all places) from 2005 that:
Three in four U.S. adults (74%) agree that “protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost.” In addition, a plurality of adults (47%) agree that “there is too little government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection.” These attitudes are significantly more pro-environment than in 2000, the last time Harris Interactive examined these issues.
Now, yes, I know, we bloggers all tend to be rather poll happy, so it’s easy to take these with a grain of salt. But the facts don’t lie. Republican governance, as embodied by movement conservatism, has been an unmitigated disaster, on just about every level. People who hate government simply should not be governing. And although I firmly believe that Americans tend to be rather easily manipulated, I just like to think and hold out hope that we’re not that nasty and selfish.
And so the disconnect continues, and these idiots continue not to get it. Just look at Romney at CPAC this last week(from Greg Anrig at TPM Cafe):
Romney drew applause proclaiming, “It is high time to lower taxes, including corporate taxes, and to get out that weed whacker and take it to regulations.” But taxes have been lowered again and again, and public health, safety, and environmental regulations have been whacked to oblivion. And now the U.S. economy may already be in a recession, impelled in part by a failure to regulate the home loan industry – in conformance with conservative ideology. Median wages have stagnated, inequality has soared, and the federal budget has deteriorated, illustrating just how magical tax cuts for the rich continue to be.
Keep riding down the road of failure, cons. I’m hoping that perhaps they’ll go so far down that road that I’m not going to have to deal with another period like this in my lifetime. As Noah at TRF said, “You guys just keep running on the idea that the country hates you because of over-spending. I dare you.”
UPDATE: And it’s not just the national hacks that don’t get it. Former Rainville plagiarist hack Christopher Potter Stewart, whose gooey love for McCain knows know boundaries, is buying into that line of crap as well. Good.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
You are way overestimating the intelligence of the American voter again, JD. The red voter sees the Democratic Party as the Gay-Black-Female Party, and no matter what he/she thinks about the issues, he/she will never vote Democrat.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Oh, I don’t think every single one feels that way. C’mon, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Great post.
One thing that was striking to me was the editorializing in the CNN story:
"a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, `government is not the answer to our problems — government is the problem.’"
Notice that word "still"? It overstates the popular support for Reagan’s "ideas" (wait–is shoveling money into the pockets of rich people an idea?) without bothering to provide evidence. This seems like some flawed journalism to me.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Yeah, it struck me right away, too . Charity was using it as ‘evidence’.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Conservatives have been drumming their distrust of gummint into the little brains of red voters since the early days of the John Birch Society. In the 1960s and 1970s Goldwater and Nixon brought the southron Lost Cause losers into their fold, who’ve been hating the Feds since Lincoln and Appomatox. Hate Radio and Fox fill the airwaves and TV with anti-government paranoia. Face it guys, government haters are the majority of voters in most of our states. You guys need to get out of the Green Mountains more.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Still disagree about that "most" part. In many parts of the country, sure (and I’ve been to many parts of the country), but hardly "most". If it were, the Repubs would still be clobbering the Dems, and truth be told, the Libertarian party might actually have a few people in Congress, too. Which they don’t.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Look online at polling data re: Bush’s popularity. Unbelievably, he still is over 50% in many states with many demographics – especially southern white males, fundamnentalists, gunnuts, anti-aborts, evangelikkkals. These are NOT people that will ever vote for Obama over McCain, no matter how much whining the wingnut Hate Radio hosts do. And McCain gets an additional bounce because he is not Bush. Despite the monumental failures of Bush, this will be a very very close election in the fall. If Hillary finagles the nomination, consider it already over – McCain wins. I give Obama maybe a 50%-50% chance, if that.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:35 am
What I said to a friend this morning who more or less asked me about an Obama candidacy…
"He would slaughter McCain.. an eloquent young guy looking towards the future vs. some cranky old fart pushing fear and a bunch of stale ideas that have run the country into the toilet? C’mon."
I know that you seem to have a lot of hatred for the south. Having lived there myself, there are certainly aspects of the region’s culture that I find reprehensible, but I don’t buy into this sweeping generalization. South Carolina, even with all the Godidiots, could still go for Obama in the national, simply because the substantive black population is never gonna go for a stodgy old white turd like McCain. It’s really not as bad as you think. And the south is not representative of the rest of the country.
There’s plenty to be cynical about, as always. But with the GOP in the political toilet, the south is not as important as it used to be. Don’t let your hatred color the facts to the extent that you miss that.