Aug 13 2010

“Because We Haven’t”

Updates Below!

When you promise the gullible you can turn them all into TV-Land princes and princesses, and that world-wide Nirvana is one election away, you should expect a serious backlash when your facade of infinite wisdom and power comes crashing down to expose the experienced and impotent human being behind the curtain. I have never seen such a realistic versi0n of the Wizard of Oz fantasy in my entire life than the spectacular failures of the liberal/progressive Democrats these last two years they wielded power. It has truly illustrated the naiveté of the denizens of Oz (aka the Democrat left).

More so because the failures stem from the left finally passing their policies – and watching them crash and burn due to their overly simplistic and not well thought out ramifications. We had to pass these vacuous and vague policies in order to learn what would happen –  instead of knowing ahead time. These people had no real clue, they just felt really strongly they were purer than everyone else, thus their solutions had to be superior! And now they have left our economy in ruins and their plans are on a path to destroy everyone’s health care options. Not to mention the generations of debt they have saddled this country with. They were superior – superiorly bad.

So of course, now that we see the messy sausage the lofty liberal/progressive types have conjured up in reality, everyone is beginning to jump ship. Even more interesting is the fact the left did not get true socialist Nirvana, where they tell everyone else how to live, what to speak and think – so they are the ones most ‘depressed’ (verses energized):

WHY, asks a Democrat leading a training session for fellow activists, doesn’t “Yes we can” work as a slogan any more? “Because we haven’t,” a jaded participant responds. Progressives, as bedrock Democrats like to call themselves, are despondent. The election euphoria of 2008, when their party secured heavy majorities in both chambers of Congress and Barack Obama won the presidency with ease, has deflated so rapidly that analysts are now diagnosing on the left an affliction they ascribed to the Republicans back then: an “enthusiasm gap”.

The present gap is really more of a chasm. Gallup, a pollster, reckons that a mere 28% of Democrats are “very enthusiastic” about voting, compared to 44% of Republicans. By the same token the Pew Research Centre found in June that only 37% of liberal Democrats were “more enthusiastic than usual” about going to the polls, compared with 59% of conservative Republicans. And according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll the same month, the categories of voters whose interest in elections has dimmed the most since the last one are liberals and those who voted for Mr Obama (see chart). “You can’t deny the level of disappointment,” says Raul Grijalva, a Democratic representative from Arizona and head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Depressed? Because the country is not mesmerized by their virtues, grace and wisdom? Or are they depressed because they failed to remake the world into their own Walter-Mitty images (because the world refused to comply)? They must be wondering why is there still war, why is Iran still arming itself with deadly nuclear weapons and killing its citizens? Why is the country still under attack from radical Islamic Fascists? Why didn’t the economy respond to the government’s magic wand? Why is there no global warming (unless you ‘adjust’ and cherry pick the data)? Why, why, why …?

The hardest thing for a zealot to admit is the possibility they were ‘wrong’. Worse, to admit that their simple minded views of how things work are inadequate to the true complexities of the universe and reality. But I think it is starting to sink in to the left that at least they have figured out America is not impressed, and is about to make that sentiment absolutely clear. They see their hopes slipping away, and finally the message from America is sinking in – somewhat.

CNN released an analysis showing 2010 is shaping up just like 1994, the last time the left took a political pasting in the polls:

When it comes to the political landscape three months before the midterm elections take place, is everything that’s old new again?

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey paints a picture that is markedly similar to that of August, 1994, when few people predicted that in only three short months the Republican Party would snatch 54 seats from the Democrats and wrestle control of the House from the beleaguered party.

Sixteen years later, Republican candidates for Congress have a three-point advantage in the “generic ballot” question – virtually the same position they held at the same time in 1994. President Obama has an all-time high disapproval rating almost on par with that of Bill Clinton’s 16 years ago. And Republican voters are feeling an intense amount of anger over the state of the nation – the same motivating force that the GOP relied on in 1994.

In 1994 the nation was coming out of a mild recession and entering a period of economic heaven and world peace (since the Berlin Wall had fallen and al Qaeda’s hate was being notably ignored after the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing). The economic and world backdrop in 2010 is drastically different. The nation is not coming out of a recession but entering its second year (and maybe second economic dip) as the liberal stimulus policies failed so miserably – and expectedly. And the world has not started humming ‘We Are The World” in perfect unison either. In fact, our nation has experienced more attacks on its shores in the last two years than all the other years since 9/11.

The political tsunami building now in 2010 is much bigger than the one that hit the left in 1994. This time they did get their way and pass leftist policies. They did bankrupt the nation – and produced no economic stimulus. This time they did bribe their way in Congress to destroy our health care plans to the point states are rising up in mass protest. This time they did have their Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico, and were seen even more incompetent than President Bush. This time the left sued a state for enforcing immigration laws this country demands be enforced.

The liberals laid bare their true cores this time, they had to in order to make more progress than 1993-1994. And, as in 1994, the nation is rejecting them. But this time the rejection will be monumental. Because this time the stakes are higher, the general environment and mood of the electorate is much worse and the evidence of liberal/progressive mistakes is unambiguously clear. This will not be 1994. Just ask Senators Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Russ Feingold, to name a few progressives trying to not be drowned in the coming wave.

Update: Kimberley Strassel at WSJ has discovered some hard to refute evidence that this fall’s backlash is aimed directly at the liberal pols and their failed policies:

Troll through the voting rolls, and you’ll find an exclusive club of three House Democrats running for re-election who voted against the more controversial pieces of the Obama agenda: the $862 billion stimulus, Mr. Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget, cap and trade and, of course, ObamaCare. Troll through the polls today, and you’ll find a near-exclusive club of three House Democrats who are beating every electoral expectation. Were history, incumbency and the economy the main factors this fall, Idaho’s Walt Minnick, Alabama’s Bobby Bright and Mississippi’s Gene Taylor would be packing up. That they aren’t is a resounding statement on a failed Obama vision.

So they only 3 Democrats in deep red states not feeling the voters’ wrath are the same three who opposed the signature liberal disasters. QED.

3 responses so far

3 Responses to ““Because We Haven’t””

  1. […] to take a chance on something different” – hotair.com 08/13/2010 Change. more… “Because We Haven’t” – strata-sphere.com 08/13/2010 When you promise the gullible you can turn them all into […]

  2. Of all the posts I’ve put up on my little blog, “…and the sharks will come.” gets the most hits by far. Whenever I think it has run its course, something like this turns up and tempts me to haul it out yet again.

  3. In 2010 Republican registered voters are going to turn up in both proportionately and numerically larger numbers than in 1994 and go better than 9-to-1 against Democrats.

    Now it looks like Independents are breaking better than two to one against Democratic Congressional incumbents…and everyone else Democratic down ballot:

    Source:
    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/114327-poll-independents-who-backed-obama-shifting-away-from-dems

    Poll: Independents who backed Obama shifting away from Democrats

    By Bridget Johnson – 08/15/10 09:52 AM ET

    >snip<

    Fifty-two percent of independents backed President Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008, and 49 percent went for Democratic House candidates to 41 percent for Republicans.

    But the AP polling now shows just 32 percent of independents wanting Democrats to hold on to Congress in November’s midterm elections.

    More from the AP:

    Independents voice especially strong concerns about the economy, with 9 in 10 calling it a top problem and no other issue coming close, the analysis of the AP-GfK polls shows. While Democrats and Republicans rank the economy the No. 1 problem in similar numbers, they are nearly as worried about their No. 2 issues, health care for Democrats and terrorism for Republicans.

    Ominously for Democrats, independents trust Republicans more on the economy by a modest but telling 42 percent to 36 percent. That’s bad news for the party that controls the White House and Congress at a time of near 10 percent unemployment and the slow economic recovery.

    >snip<

    “It the jobs, stupid.”

    Obama’s health care, tax and regulatory policies have not only killed small business and non-government contractor big capital jobs growth, they have started capital disinvestment that means there will be fewer private sector jobs in 2012 than in 2010.

    President Obama’s economic and domestic policies have turned a credit bubble recession into an avoidable depression.

    And we still have not seen what the foreign policy disasters Obama will commit between now and 2012 will do to oil prices.