Reading and listening to the commentary that the left has produced over the past few weeks is really telling. We sound like we lost.
We do our best to attempt to blame anyone for the losses.
Anyone.
We've blamed pretty much every single entity that is out there. We've blamed Obama, the Democratic Party, media, voting machines, activists, political strategists, opinion journalists, voters, capitalism, banksters, The Supreme Court...
I think the list continues, but I'm not sure if I really need to fill it out for you.
(I was reminded of this languishing diary by the Wendell Potter clip that's at the top of the rec list. The reason I was reminded is that it was a great clip, and it was an important statement by Potter, but it was made on an ideologically biased program with a viewership that is mostly limited to those who already agree with the statement. The question is how to get that statement to the swing voters who make the difference.)
Here is famous funny man Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) using the blamethrower to attack his mortal enemies in the movie, Mystery Men.
I think it's an interesting idea that the guy who is doing all of the redirecting of blame in this image is also someone who was famously arrested for masturbating in public (Fact is, he shouldn't have been cited for what he did).
Don't get me wrong, blogs are great. They have provided an avenue for activism that didn't exist for most on the left.
I think that Republicans have had this sort of networking capability for decades. They have had their conservative book clubs, and their conservative news outlets that spin a story into a massive low pressure system that sucks in all oxygen in the area. They have their networking of business related organizations. They have deep pocketed financiers who are willing to spend a lot of money on their political operations, and see that money as an investment that will produce a real financial return.
In 2006, Republican/conservativish voters had a variety of people to blame. They blamed Karl Rove, they blamed Bush, they blamed Republicans who were in control of congress for not cutting spending, they claimed vote fraud.
As much as I don't want to compare our reaction to children, I have to. When I watch my kid doing something competitive, he will often attempt to lay blame at the feet of any individual, circumstance, or rule. The first reaction is defensive. Before a word can be uttered, he wants to make clear that it wasn't his fault. I try to get him to understand that it's really not an issue of who is at fault. If he tries to blame a player on the team, the player is... let's just say unlikely... to listen to his concerns.
I was listening to sports radio the other day, and the show with the coach was going to be on at about 9 or so. The host of the show said that after a win, the coach was always late, and that after a loss the coach was always there at 5AM, because he was ready to confront the losses and make plans for moving forward to the next game.
It was a refreshing attitude to hear.
My kids are both scholastic chess players. One of my older kid's nemeses in the local chess world had a feature in the USCF magazine. The thing he had learned from an older, more experienced player was this: There are three options in chess: win, draw, or learn.
We didn't win, we didn't draw, and I don't think we're doing the third part. We seem to be spending our time blaming the bishop for only moving diagonally. I have no symbolic intent in that comment. The bishop is nobody in particular.
Internet pundits, opinion journalists, cable news personalities, prominent activists in liberal politics... those people are not to blame for anything. The media reach of most of them is so small that it barely registers a bleep with the people who impacted these midterms.
Let's say we have generic political pundit on internet news, opinion, and human interest channel. Does that person's opinion actually have any impact on the swing voter who reflexively voted anti-incumbent this midterm? I doubt it.