I get a lot of grief from my friends on the right when I remind them that you cannot insult the centrists and expect to win governing majorities to enact policy. When policies ideas hit The People’s House they become moderated – it is a feature of this great nation. People with hardened or extreme or emotion driven views (please note the ‘or’ everywhere) find this moderation process frustrating. Some get angry and lash out at the reality, sometimes under the ironic banner of being proud American Constitutionalists.

It is a common reaction to watching the sausage making of democracies.

It is not a sin to be frustrated with the checks and balances of our great republic. It is clearly not wise to lash out at our fellow citizens for this, and in the process lose their support or respect. Insulting people with differing views for expressing those views in a democracy is pretty dumb.

In fact, what is best to take away from this experience is the knowledge that we don’t want our personal lives caught up in this mind numbing debate and delay inside government. Many of us who are for small government point to this diluting and delayed process for deciding anything as an infringement on our rights to make our own decisions for our own needs. Every frustrated person should be jumping on the bandwagon to roll back government intervention in our lives, allowing us to make our decisions when we need to.

Which I think is happening now. We may not agree on how much of a role government should play in health care (prosecuting inept frauds who harm unknowing ‘patients’ is an easy one), but we are coming to the conclusion its imprint should be small and only for extreme circumstances. I think the health care bill fiasco run  by the liberal Dems will re-align the political will of this nation towards removing government imposed barriers (such as rules that favor one group or company over another, or limits choices to which insurance is in a given state), instead of adding layers and layers of sluggish government process. This new libertarian tide will be the next great alignment (within reasonable and comfortable limits).

Anyway, I digress. What I have seen in the elections of 2009 and 2010 to date is an interesting case of severe and terminal denial on the left. Each time the liberal dems ran as if there was no way the American people were rising up in opposition to their actions. Each time they have blamed mythical republican spinmeisters or poor candidates, instead of simply listening to the people and reacting accordingly. By not listening, they made their situation worse.

Here is a great example of this related to the upcoming special election smack down coming tomorrow in MA.

Statewide elections in Massachusetts tend to favor Democratic candidates. That we have a close race in this election with some polls of likely voters showing the Republican a few points ahead is the result of a number of factors:

1. Elections like off year elections and special elections in months other than November usually have a depressed turn out that favors the candidate whose supporters are more energized.

Not to be too picky, but energy works in all races. Anyway, why are Brown voters so energized? Is it because Martha Coakley was aloof and stayed off the campaign trail during the holidays? Of course not! Not hearing from politicians is a good thing, especially over family holidays.

The rise in opposition is not due to Coakley, it is due to the environment Coakley finds herself and how she represents all those things voters are ANGRY about. I never in my life got excited because a politician is an awkward fool – I would lose my mind with all the opportunities. So let’s see why the opposition is energized according to the liberal mindset:

2. The Republican base is unusually energized as a result of all of the lies they have been fed about health care reform.

Classic arrogant liberal thinking. Unlike the left, which prays on the altar of organized thinking, conservatives (with that libertarian streak in them) like to think for themselves. When a lot of independent thinking people come to the same conclusion, this is not (a) being fed lies or (b) being naive dupes who fall for the lies. This is another classic case of insulting those who have legitimate disagreements.

3. The Democratic base seems disinterested or demoralized.

Probably because, not being automatons like liberals, they are not believing the spin and are also seeing all the fatal flaws in the Frankenstein’s Monster of Obamacare. They have loss faith, and it is not their fault. It is the fault of the liberal leaders and their missteps.

4. The Democratic candidate has not run a strong campaign.

Honestly, she shouldn’t of had to run much of any campaign, being deep blue MA and her huge support statewide. It was right after the Senate crammed through Obamacare (and started to really threaten the health care of the 70% of us who have health insurance) that Coakley became the symbol of liberal elites in DC. The fact she fit the model to a ‘T’ is why this election is a warning shot being heard in every district and state in the nation. There was nothing Coakley could do because the tide of opposition is not rising due to anything she has said or done.

5. Senior members of the Democratic Party were slow to recognize the danger.

They still don’t, and neither does this author. The force behind this tsunami is the hyper-partisan liberal policies being crammed through congress. We have seen the result of the liberal fantasy of  ‘government stimulus’ and it is a pathetic joke. The bureaucracy is too sluggish to react in time to help, wastes too much money and reaches only cronies and the politically correct. It was the liberal answer to across the board tax cuts which have worked many times in our history. It failed. We see where this is going. More silly liberal policies failing spectacularly at a huge costs to Americans.

It is a lesson worth emphasizing. Every crazy liberal policy (like government run stimulus) is really an attempt to thwart a working conservative approach (tax cuts). It is the liberal need to be in charge, no matter the cost, that causes them to create such carnage of stupidity.

It is not the fault of the GOP spinmeisters or the stupidity of the American voter causing these races to be so one sided. It was the politically dumb approach to national issues by liberal zealots that created this opposition. Until the Democrats realize these losses (a) are not isolated incidents but a deep national trend and (b) it is their actions driving this trend they will continue to miss the signs and use tactics which only aggravate the situation.

I post this in some hope that moderate and centrist democrats will understand the poisonous leaders they are following. There is no reason to keep building the wave of opposition except ego and denial. The fact America sees this as the core problem is not the fault of Americans. Will liberals admit they screwed up on a colossal scale and turn this around?

I seriously doubt it. Which is why their arrogance and ego is their Achilles’ Heel

Update: How apropos:

A large majority of Americans say they want a smaller government that provides them with fewer services, according to a new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News. But the Washington Post story about the poll makes no mention of this fact.

Was I just lucky, or am I on to something?

Tags: 2010 Elections, Liberals, Martha Coakley, Scott Brown