If any message resonates in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, and Florida, it's the following:
WHAT was I thinking?
We've all said that, especially after doing something incredibly stupid.
Republicans in 2010 ran on a message of jobs. That turned out to be a lie. The people of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, and Florida are now saying:
In a highly contested diary, this comment caught my eye:
My only hope is the an overreaching GOP-run government will cause SUCH pain and destruction that the backlash will provide the first opportunity in almost a century to actual progressive populists to to rise and dismantle the corrupt, fixed system and promote the PEOPLE. Right now, a revolution like that sounds kooky. But once a GOP-run government eliminates most every federal department (except defense) or privatizes its functions, strips federal dollars to the states in the name of "deficit reductions" and "balancing our budget like a family", people's lives will be severely effected and the wool may just drop from the eyes of delusional and apathetic americans the way it happened in Wisconsin.
If you look at what's happening in the states, you will see that above comment in action. In Ohio, for example, the police unions have joined in the anti-Kasich protests. The head of that union, who has been on Rachel's show several times, is a card carrying Republican. And yes, Republicans are in this fight as well. Because if you look at approval polls, the governors in these states have almost record low approval numbers.
This fight in the states is not about party. It's about PEOPLE and POLICY.
And look how it's grown. ORGANICALLY. Spontaneously. Involving EVERYBODY.
Dare I say, a "post-partisan" movement?
Granted, right now the impetus is only on one specific issue. But you can hear rumblings. You can hear people who didn't vote in 2010 thinking "who voted for these zeebs? They're going after me, now."
You hear many people who voted for Republicans because they bought into their message of "jobs" saying "What was I thinking?"
And Democrats should be welcoming these new converts to the fight not with "I told you so's", but with advice for continuing the fight.
Now, in the big picture, there is a lot of partisanship still happening. In many ways, it defines us now. People are still more likely to vote "D" or "R" over any particular issue.
And the Wisconsin argument regarding Presidential participation does have some truth to it. I believe that by "putting on his comfortable shoes", the President would have made what was happening in Wisconsin a "D" vs "R" issue, instead of the organic populist movement it was.
Because as any community organizer will tell you, the second The Man gets involved with one side or another, the side it gets involved with automatically becomes an extension of The Man.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
However combinations or associations of [factions] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government - destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
George Washington
Imagine a President in today's environment governing on the basis of Washington's warning about faction. Trying to change 200 years of factionalism that's been happening since Adams vs Jefferson.
That's why the Tea People are ultimately doomed to failure. That's why we're winning in Wisconsin and Ohio.
The movement has been organic, not fueled by faction.
But faction remains. And that's where the buyer's remorse message comes in. We've seen Republicans in Congress. We know they ran on a lie. The people are seeing it in a few states. But they need to see it nationally.
"Are Republicans living up to their promise?"
"Are Republican policies benefiting YOU?"
Some of those people are Republicans in Ohio who will vote Democratic for the first time in their lives.
Because they've seen Republican policy up close.
That's the movement we need to help grow.
Now, speaking of "buyer's remorse", my NEXT diary will be for those here who are angst-ridden about the President.