Saturday, June 9, 2018

2018 red wave

Ew. Sounds toxic. Like an algae bloom in the ocean.

If There's a Red Wave Election in 2018, This Will Be Why, an article published by NYT written by Christopher Buskirk.

Let's think for ourselves for a minute before reading Christopher Buskirk's analysis. If there is a red wave then why do we think it might be? Big if.

1) Democrats have been so obnoxious in their resistance, in their refusal to accept the results of the election that conservatives are activated to provide them the same smackdown they delivered their own party that refused to represent their interests.

2) The election results were about conservatives seizing control of their party from uniparty types owned and operated by Chamber of Commerce contrary to conservative voters' interests. It had less to do with Democrats, there is nothing conservatives can do about Democrats except defeat them. While they can make their own representatives go where Whigs went.

3) Straight up rejection of political dynastic families even while risking creating a new one.

4) Abuse of Tea Party, a genuine grass roots development. All those people heretofore disinterested in politics, suddenly activated to political life to salvage the future for their children. That is what they talked about at their rallies, speech after speech, and that messages was utterly mangled into something that media and Democrats and Republicans could argue, basically racism. Yet their message remained, their activation did not peter out, they simply persisted more quietly. They became like Al Qaeda, decentralized, but no less fierce, and they're still activated in defense of their elected president. While media and Democrats and Republicans celebrate their triumph of their destruction of the Tea Party by their malevolent misrepresentation, those voters remain, but now fully charged, growing in force, and no longer willing to pass their representation to politicians who suddenly turn to into purchased Chamber of Commerce operatives.

5) This caused Democrats to behave even more wild, more demanding, much more confrontational, more destructive, more bizarre, less comprehensible to the middle, to their own party members. Less representational to Democrat voters.

What do you think will be the reasons for a red wave, if there is such a thing in 2018?

Let's see what Christopher Buskirk said writing for the NYT.

Ugh. NYT. 10 strikes against it right off.

* 2016 was chance for Republicans to break the spell of Clintons and Bushes.

* 2016 rank-and-file Republicans replaced insulated, feckless party leadership that elevated its own interests over every one else's.

* Trump means the voters are taking their party back.

* For Republicans the primaries are a continuation to claw back control of their party. Consumate the promise of 2016 revolt agains ruling-class misrule.

* Republican analogue to Democrats dividing the nation into competing grievance groups was to divid ethe country into radically autonomous individuals based on a cartoonish misreading of libertarianism that replaces the free markets and free minds of Hayek with the greed and hubris of Gordon Gekko but that is chaning to renewed emphasis on addressing America and Americans as a community characterized by fraternal bonds and mutual responsibility, what Lincoln called teh mystic chords of memory.

What? Ha ha ha ha ha. So you went to school. Whatever. If you say so.

What a load.

* Conservative voters brought issues of citizenship and solidarity, what it means to be an American to the for.

* Through Trump, conservatives created an environment in which intellectual refounding of Republican politics became possible.

* Giving up on failed policy of moral imperialism allows Republicans to focus on forming good citizens and restoring a sense of Americanism that relies on strong ties of fellowship and belief in shared destiny.

* Candidates like Lou Barletta and Mike Braun propelled to victory with rhetoric and policies that connect citizenship and civic virtue.

* Trump speak off the cuff about "we," "us" and "our, " we love our farmers, our police, our flag and our national anthem, our coal miners that speaks to the fraternity of the nation.

* Polls.

* Cracks in Democrat frontline. Disaffection for Mueller investigation.

* Scandal fatigue, attacks against Trump weighed against revelations of FBI DOJ improprieties.

* Pelosi pledging higher taxes.

* 59 Democrats promising impeachment while the stock market is up, wages up, unemployment down, peace breaking out on Korean Peninsula.

* Turnout statistics.

* President's popularity rising.

Wow. Not bad at all. That's actually very good. It surprised me. Good read.

Recommended.

1 comment:

edutcher said...

1 and 2.

The dynasties fielded lousy candidate (which often happens with dynasties).

A lot of Libertarianism in the Tea Party, which meant there was its share of weird and a certain loser complex.

5 means not only the Beast, but Bernie, Kerosene Maxine, the Comedy Sidekick, and Pelosi Galore.