In an excellent, but underrated diary
End Game: The Elephant Gambit Denied, which I highly recommend,
GreyHawk likened current political events (and in particular, republican losses) to a high stakes game of political chess. This is my extended and corrected response (with thanks to
UniC for suggesting it).
GreyHawk hit it right on the head and we need to pay attention. This is a long-term game, not just through '06 or '08. The Rethugs usurped the amount of power they have by playing a long-term game. They developed their echo chamber, intimidated the so-called liberal media into submission, funded and developed their think tanks, completely took over K Street, realigned the congress and have begun to dominate the judiciary. More below the fold.
This was all brilliantly done. They harnassed an angry, distrustful bloc of conservative religious voters. Their first gambit was to leverage them away from one of their own--Jimmy Carter, a devoutly evangelical southerner--and lure them to Ronald Reagan--a business-backed symbol with a dysfunctional family who talked a good game about family and faith.
But they have gone way too far out on too many limbs. They have gotten much too full of themselves and started believing their own bullshit. They have constructed a house of cards and tell themselves that it will endure lo, unto the end of the age.
Their liabilities are huge right now.
- They have forgotten one of the most basic aphorisms: "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."
- The fundies have put them on notice that there is no more "trust me." Everyone thinks that the fundies have taken over the republican party. But really, I think it's the repugs who have coopted the fundies and strung them along by telling them what they want to hear and throwing them scraps along the way.
- Congress is no longer afraid of the Bushies and they are now running to protect their own pathetic carcasses in advance of re-election.
- The Bushies have lost the aura of invincibility. Even the MSM is starting to wake up a little, although they're still sheep. But I hope this is like the early stages of Watergate (in so many ways) when Woodward and Bernstein were the only guys out there and everyone else came later.
- It's starting to sink in that Iraq is a quagmire and no amount of spin control can cover that up forever.
- Harry Reid. Someone needs to remind them to be careful what they ask for because they just might get it. They wanted Daschle out and they got it. But what they also got was a tough little fighter and one helluva poker player.
- Patrick Fitzgerald. Their worst nightmare. He surpasses even Reagan as the "teflon man." They keep making attempts to tar him as "out of control" or having an axe to grind, but so far none of it has been able to stick. Someone needs to write a song about the sinking of Bush to the tune of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
In response to my point #2 above,
UniC correctly pointed out that:
"The fundies want to have their agenda of theocracy enshrined in law through the Repug party, they use each other. Politically they receive scraps, but physically on the ground their influence is real and growing. They are both achieving their goals even if we perceive it otherwise."
I would add that it will be interesting to see in the end who played who (it could be a nasty divorce).
This game has a long way to go. But they have gotten way too sure of themselves and fallen prey to Bush's and their own blind spots. Right now is the time for some political cartoonist to depict Bush, Cheney and Rove as cowboys in the midst of wagons circled and Indians with flaming arrows outside saying to themselves with hubristic glee, "Aha, now we've got them right where they want us."
In an excellent, lengthy comment in GreyHawk's diary that is worth reading in its entirety, Ponderer added:
"We truly are watching an amazing battle to redeem our country. It differs from chess in that chess players play only against each other. This is real war, in which public persuasion is integral to overall strategy."
The question is can we be smart and continue to parry and thrust and not trip over our own clumsy feet (and mouths)? Can we stay focused on the long-term game and hang together?
Stay tuned.