October 31, 2010

It’s Clobberin’ Time!

Hatched by Dave Ross

Two years ago my liberal friends, and to a degree my conservative ones, sniggered when I said I would trade four years of Obama for 12 or 16 years of Republicans. I said I was sure that the Democrats would overreach themselves and that we would probably see another 1994 election. Now they aren’t laughing so hard.

I was wrong about one thing, though. This isn’t 1994. This year is to ‘94 as Mount St. Helens is to a popping champagne bottle.

It is, as the Thing, Ben Grimm, says, clobberin’ time. Liberals: we know where you live and you won’t be living there much longer! It’s about now that I’ll start to needle my Democrat friends into making improvident wagers about the election. And they’ll take me up on the ridiculous odds that I’m offering. Democrats aren’t good gamblers -- except when it comes to their children and grandchildren’s money.

Why is this going to happen? Because Barack Obama engaged in the most blatant bait and switch of any politician in living memory -- at least my living memory, and my memory is augmented by reading many books on politics. The country voted for one thing and was stunned to find that what they elected was very different from what they thought they were voting for. Certainly they knew that they weren’t going to get a right wing agenda, but they certainly weren’t expecting to get the most blatantly liberal agenda since 1964.

Both parties, when they win large majorities, assume that the populace loves them. They overreach. Republicans assume that when they win an election that this gives them license to prepare a Christmas gift for the fundamentalists. They are able to get away with that more than the Democrats because there are now more than twice as many conservatives in America as there are liberals. But there are also LOTS of libertarian leaning voters, whose interests don’t include many of the goals of the religious right.

But when the Democrats overreach, oh brother!

As Patrick Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen pointed out in a Washington Post column on Saturday, the same candidate who pledged that the end had come to the divide between Red and Blue America was the same president who urged Hispanics to “punish” their “enemies” on Tuesday. Hardly the words of a post-partisan messiah! He is, in fact, the most divisive, partisan president of our time. Beware candidates who, like Richard Nixon in 1968, pledge to “bring us together.”

But we never should have expected anything like that anyway. Politics is not about bringing people together, it is about winning enough votes to push your programs through. But it is also about having the wisdom not to push through programs that are wildly unpopular with the majority of voters. Given that the Obama and his lieutenants, Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Haight-Ashbury, 100%) and Senate Majority Leader Harry "Pinky" Reid (D-Caesar's Palace, 95%), still maintain that their policies are not unpopular, merely not communicated well, it may well be that the Democrats won’t learn the lessons of this election in time to apply them to the next.

At least I hope so!

Hatched by Dave Ross on this day, October 31, 2010, at the time of 3:00 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: seePea

wasn't it The Thing who said "clobbering time"?

The above hissed in response by: seePea [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 31, 2010 5:10 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

SeePea:

Yes, you're right; I'll correct it for Dave. (And I'm kicking myself for not noticing it myself; the Incredible Huck was never that articulate...

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 31, 2010 10:47 PM

The following hissed in response by: Baggi

I really wish all those Tea Partiers, Conservatives and Libertarians out there who want to see tomorrow as "Clobberin" time would downplay the momentum Republicans are feeling at the moment.

Right now, people are expecting as high as 65 Congressional seats and 8 to 10 Senate Seats.

All of that is well and good, but what happens if we "only" get 45 congressional seats and 6 Senate Seats? That will be spun as the ultimate comeback.

Obama, having lost huge (Because even those numbers are pretty big) will become the new Clinton, or rather, the new Comeback kid.

We've completely lost in the expectations game. We've allowed our expectations to roar so high, that tomorrow is almost sure to let us down.

Which is not a good thing. If we win control of the house tomorrow, but not the Senate, we should be really happy.

But i'm afraid at this point, if we don't win control of the Senate, we're going to see a victory dance by Democrats and doubling down on Obama's agenda.

The above hissed in response by: Baggi [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 1, 2010 3:50 PM

The following hissed in response by: Eris Guy

"Republicans assume that when they win an election that this gives them license to prepare a Christmas gift for the fundamentalists."

If a Republican-controlled House doesn't defund the EPA, Education Department, National Endowment for the Arts, or end foreign aid to tyrannies, etc., then their will have been no purpose in voting Republican.

The above hissed in response by: Eris Guy [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 1, 2010 6:59 PM

The following hissed in response by: JSchuler

Two years ago my liberal friends, and to a degree my conservative ones, sniggered when I said I would trade four years of Obama for 12 or 16 years of Republicans. I said I was sure that the Democrats would overreach themselves and that we would probably see another 1994 election. Now they aren’t laughing so hard.
I'm right with you here. This election is why I didn't pull the lever for McCain. Sure, our country wouldn't be in as bad a mess under McCain right now, but we would still be getting worse, and nowhere closer to turning the ship around.

The above hissed in response by: JSchuler [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 1, 2010 10:09 PM

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