I, like most of you am thrilled by what a hard time the republican politicians are having lately, and it certainly should be helpful to the Dems in their quest to take back Congress. However, something has been troubling me over the past week, and I'm getting more and more uneasy about it. It is something I watched happen with Dubya twice, but didn't even realize it until it was too late. Kos has said repeatedly, and I whole-heartedly agree, that regardless of how fucking abysmal the republicans are at governing, they are masters of the universe at winning elections. Unfortunately, while the dems are pretty good a governing, they are equally bad at running for office. I believe with everything I've got that if we don't keep up the hard fight in the real world with our people-powered movement, that the "Consultants", those brilliant assholes that have been advising us all the way to defeat the past several elections, will find a way to fuck this up and blow it.
Here is what's making me nervous. The crazies are doing what they always do.....lie, cheat, whatever it takes to laud the republicans and demonize the democrats. So, the narative from Hannity, Limbaugh, and the other total nuts hasn't changed much. However, the group that has always made me much more nervous are the so called moderate, independent voices like George Will, Pat Buchanon, Joe Scarborow, etc. These are guys who make it a point to dissent every now and then just so they look like free thinkers. And then you also have members of the MSM that I consider to be trend followers. These are people like Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, & Wolfe Blitzer. These folks report with a slant that they think reflects their audience at the time, but present it as unbiased.
Those last two groups----the pseudo-moderates, and the MSM trend followers----are making overly confident statements for the democrats. Joe Scarborow is already predicting that the Democrats will have a massive tidal wave and gain a large majority in the House and also retake the Senate. Some would say, "If a Repubilcan thinks we're gonna win, that's great!" My concern is, when was the last time you could trust a fucking word that came out of a Republican official or pundit's mouth? I don't think that they are as worried as people like Scarborow make them out to be....concerned, yes, but freaking out, no. I think this is part of a coordinated effort by the (I hesitate to use this word) "moderate" wing to create an unrealistic expectation. I think they want people like us to think we have it in the bag so we'll lighten up on our volunteering & contributing. I think they want undecided voters to think it's a foregone conclusion that the Dems are going to win so that they don't feel much urgency to vote on election day if they want change. And most importantly, they want everyone to believe that the Dems have it in the bag right now because if we don't win, or if we barely win, it sets the stage for the new narative...."This just shows you where the democrats stand with the public if they couldn't even take advantage of an implosion in the Republican party." Make no mistake about it, they are saying these things for a reason, and they are setting the dems up for potentially a dissasterous defeat if we don't get the work done. After this scandal, and especially after they way the "perceived moderates" have reacted, both in the media, and in the congress itself, if we don't deliver a victory for the Democrats, we will be dealing with devastating political fallout.
They did this with Dubya. They somehow managed to tell us that he is an idiot, without insulting him....and then when he went to debates and other public appearances, any stupid stuff he did got laughed off because it was expected, and anything he did that even resembled intelligent was met with awe. The expectations game is one the Republicans know well, and they almost always kick our ass at it. We cannot allow the media or the pundits to get our confidence too high. We cannot for one second let up on these bastards. If we see them drowing we cannot allow them to catch a breath...we must swim beneath them and tie an anvil to their legs. We must continue to swing at them with no breaks until the polls close on November 7, and then we must get ready to start swinging at their lawyers as they try to ignore voting irregularities. We owe this to them...they would show us nothing less.
I don't mean to piss on anyone's parade, but I advise you all to take any bad news for the republicans in the media with a grain of salt. Every time a right-wing loyalist hears how bad they are gonna get clobbered, he gets more motivated to get out the vote and prove us wrong. Every time someone who isn't happy with the republicans, but doesn't really like the dems hears that we are gonna clobber them, he feels relieved because things will change without having to go vote for the lesser of two evils. We have a lot of work to do, and don't kid yourself it is an uphill climb. So let's not trust the beltway consultants who have so shamefully been rehired after proving many times that they don't know how to win. Instead let's continue to fight from the grassroots up, continue to put the heat on our own guys in congress, volunteer, give money, and blog until we go cross-eyed. If we do, we might just make Joe Scarborow into something he never would have meant to become.....a truth teller. Let's get back to work!