Of all of the races yesterday, the most interesting for me was the Missouri Senate race. Senator Claire McCaskill was one of the least popular members of the Senate and a virtual guarantee for defeat until Rep. Todd Akin delivered victory from the jaws of defeat. Akin’s infamous rape remarks made him completely toxic to the entire nation and the GOP leadership quickly called for his withdrawal from the race. Akin treated the suggestion as absurd and allowed two deadlines to pass that would have allowed his party to repair the damage that he caused. At one time, politicians would put the interests of their party and their country before their own. However, we live in a different time and Akin is the face of the times: egotistical, selfish, and extremist. Linda MacMahon in Connecticut cut the same intensely egotistical image: spending $100 million of her own money in two unsuccessful efforts to make herself a Senator despite a fairly toxic personality and image associated with professional wrestling. Despite the sound defeat in the last election, MacMahon spent even more of her own money as the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment to secure a second defeat. The question for the GOP is whether the disaster this election will cause anyone in the party to consider the eradication of moderates in their party and the loss of what we once called “Rockefeller Republicans.”
In the end, Akin appears to have been unable to even break 40 percent of the vote.
Had Akin withdrawn, the GOP would have likely secured the seat in Missouri. Not only Akin but the entire Tea Party worked last night to the great benefit for the Democrats — alienating moderate voters and securing wins across the country.
Akin will be left to history as a sad clownish figure who refused to accept the obvious reality that his own comments and extremist views destroyed any chance for election. MacMahon will fill another footnote on the amount of money someone is willing to spend in pursuit of egotism. Notably, MacMahon never appeared to have any particular vision or idea or cause — she just wanted to be a Senator and thought she had the money to guarantee it like some choreographed WWF bout. They are not the only such figures in this election.
The question is how we end up with such caricatured candidates in national elections and the overall low quality of politicians in this country. I have long blamed the monopoly of the two major parties on our politics. I still hold that view. However, Akin also represents a sad cultural reality today. It is not just the loss of moderation in politics but a loss of a sense of personal integrity and responsibility. Akin immediately blamed others and refused to stand aside for the benefit of his state and party. He is for me the face of what is wrong with our politics: an anti-intellectual extremist who ultimately shows little sense of duty or calling beyond himself.
Source: USA Today
Mike,
That is a great idea, but without instant run-off voting, there will never be a viable 3rd party opportunity, imo.
Great news Swarthmore. How progressive is Heitcamp in light that she was running in North Dakota? Is she another Blue Dog candidate?
Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND) has just conceded the North Dakota Senate race to Heidi Heitcamp.
+1 more for Dems. It’s official!
Tony, If one goes further left than democrats Elizabeth Warren, Baldwin and Grayson, there is no there there. It would have to be centrist party.
@Mike: We need to build it from the ground up, beginning at the local school board level.
Just my opinion, but that won’t work. Ever.
What defines this “third force”? How is it different than a liberal Democratic party movement? What new idea is there?
Without a new idea, a new invention, a new approach, how do we distinguish this “third force” from being just another flavor of Blue or Red?
The Tea Party at least had a new idea: Fall in line 100% or they would let the Democratic Party take your seat. They abandoned the old idea of “the lesser of two evils” (from their point of view) completely, and embraced the idea of absolute purity or punishment. And that idea worked at first, they scared the crap out of Republican politicians and that is why the Republicans scrambled to swear complete fealty (and also scrambled to steal and kill that infant movement in the crib, with truckloads of money for Newt and other sociopaths leading the charge).
if the “third force” is no different from the “liberal force” it will not get any further, no matter where you start, and it will be subject to the same infections that cripples any political movement (including the Tea Party):
1) Campaign promises are not contracts. Once elected, campaign promises do not have to be kept, and every broken promise is spun as “necessary.”
2) There is no way to tell if a politician is honest or has any integrity. The charming, charismatic sociopaths rise to the top for the simple reason that they are willing to do anything they can get away with to win, and the honest people with integrity are not.
3) Wherever there is power, there is money to be made, friends to be made, favors to horse trade, and poorly monitored spending.
4) Short of a term limit or criminal conviction, an incumbent is always the presumptive nominee for their party if they choose to be, and the “lesser of two evils” mindset means broken promises, incompetence, betrayals and self dealing almost always go unpunished. Does it make a difference how many campaign promises Obama broke, or how much of the Constitution he threw under the bus? Nah. The Republican would be worse, right? This is the fundamental problem of not being able to hold candidates to any kind of contract on their performance or veracity. I will leave the legal analysis up to lawyers, but to my understanding a candidate cannot enter into any agreement that rewards or punishes them in any way for their political actions in office.
5) Voters are extremely reluctant to “waste” their vote on a third party they do not believe can win. If a “third force” is just a gimmick to get Democrats or Republicans elected, it won’t change a thing. They will take your money, wear your logo, and then do whatever they wanted to do anyway.
Without a compelling new idea or approach there will never be a “third force” in politics. This is a result of simple marketing laws, if a voter cannot distinguish between the “third force” brand and liberal politics as usual, then the voters opposed to the liberal agenda will stick with their Red brand, and in the worst case, the Blue voters will split their vote between two candidates and the Red will win.
DonS, I doubt Rick Warren will be asked. Hopefully Obama realizes that those people are not his friends. Maybe he will ask the Rev. Wright or a Kenyan muslim ;). I hope he asks a lesbian female priest or minister.
Here’s a skeptics take:: wonder if Rick Warren will be asked to do the invocation? Start off on a ‘bipartisan’ note and all that. It’s worked so well, might as well keep pretending that brick wall isn’t there. Or, adopt enough of the GOP agenda and it won’t be.
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) makes it plain as day that his plan for the next two years is the same as his plan for the last four—to wage a passive-aggressive war against the president:”
” The American people did two things: they gave President Obama a second chance to fix the problems that even he admits he failed to solve during his first four years in office, and they preserved Republican control of the House of Representatives. The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the President’s first term, they have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control. Now it’s time for the President to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a closely-divided Senate, step up to the plate on the challenges of the moment, and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office. To the extent he wants to move to the political center, which is where the work gets done in a divided government, we’ll be there to meet him half way. That begins by proposing a way for both parties to work together in avoiding the ‘fiscal cliff’ without harming a weak and fragile economy, and when that is behind us work with us to reform the tax code and our broken entitlement system. Republicans are eager to hear the President’s proposals on these and many other pressing issues going forward and to do the work the people sent us here to do.”Daily Kos
I am sticking with the youth, minorities and the women in the democratic party.
Mike,
That deserves not only a “Yeah!” but a “Hell, Yeah!”
I used the term third force, not party, for a particular reason. There is a common thread among many of us who comment here, whether they voted for Obama or not. I’m pretty sure that Tony, Gene, Bettykath, Bron, Frankly, Nick and DonS didn’t for instance. Elaine, AY, ID707 (absentee ballot) and possibly Blouise may have, but its for them to say. I think that Mespo, SwM, Mike A, Raff, Slarti, Woosty, LK, Gyges, Shano and Pete voted for the President, but perhaps I’m presuming.
The point is that though this is a disparate group politically, made up primarily of people of an iconoclastic mindset, there is much overall agreement when it comes to the essential rights of people, as put forth in the Constitution. Where there is difference it falls into economics. Movements can be put together by forming coalitions of people that are capable of agreeing to certain basic human rights principles. My aim when I say third force is a movement to return civics education to our schools; to take money out of politics; to have politicians actually debate issues, rather than talking points; to destroy racism as a political force; to ensure that the freedom which is the premise of our Constitution is not abridged by excuses of national emergency…..etc., etc.etc.
In other words my belief is that we need a movement not based on political/economic theory, but one based on giving people the tools to make up their own mind. How it would work as yet, I haven’t thought out. what I know for a fact though is that the change we need is not one of specific programs, but one of providing education and information to the people and letting them decide who will work i their best interest. I’m sorry that I’m not clearer then this, but then I’m not interested in becoming a leader or philosopher. Also at the moment I’m an old guy who was up way past my bedtime and so my mind is foggy. Because of that I’m sorry if I forgot to put in any of our regulars names, it is not for lack of regard.
What we don’t need moving on from here is attitudes such as expressed in this linked article from NationofChange.org. http://www.nationofchange.org/sm-election-1352212691 . Mr. Hedges, dyspeptic viewpoint which crushes all hope does nothing to change the conditions we live under, although parts of his analysis are spot on. If you read this article you will also see my comments on it.
Now that this election is over today is the day to begin to create a third force movement to take our country back from the Corporations. -Mike Spindell
Hear, hear.
Real trouble afoot in these United States…
Scott Horton interviews John Whitehead:
http://scotthorton.org/2012/11/02/110212-john-whitehead/
“Constitutional attorney and author John Whitehead discusses the US government’s authorization of drone aircraft for domestic law enforcement and surveillance (public and private); the estimated 30,000 drones of all shapes and sizes that will be in service by 2020; the fate of former Marine Brandon Raub, who was forcibly institutionalized for controversial Facebook postings; the many veterans being pestered by FBI and DHS for exercising their First Amendment rights; The Rutherford Institute’s model legislation for preserving civil liberties and slowing the drone invasion; and the chilling effect “weapons of compliance” have on protest-minded Americans.”
yes, it was good to see big money and the radical Christianists lose big last night. Marijuana won big last night with a couple of exceptions.
Big money won on labeling of GMOs. They spent 44 million bucks to defeat the California prop. It was a close loss, and we will be looking for the next opportunity to bury Monsanto for all time….
Ignored by the pundits for now was that this election was the beginning of the end for “Tea Baggers”, where most of this retrograde thinking comes from. They were unfortunately heralded by media pundits as being an important movement, while OWS was given disparaging short shrift.
Now that this election is over today is the day to begin to create a third force movement to take our country back from the Corporations. We need to build it from the ground up, beginning at the local school board level. We need to start it now, so that four years from now we won’t be doing the same b**ching and moaning that the two party system offers no alternatives.
SwM,
Well, we all know what 2010 was and now that Obama has won a second term and their protest failed … it’s my neighbor playing TAPS.
Yes, they do have the money and there is no reason they can’t cut the bigots loose and get back to real conservative matters bringing the sane Republicans back on board.
Let the Jesus freaks form their own party.
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
Complaining that Obama won only because lazy minorities want free hand-outs is probably not the best way for the GOP to begin its makeover
Blouise, They do have that anti-gay, anti- woman, anti-immigrant face on their party that will be hard to get rid of. Maybe the dems can remain the party of the left, and an independent moderate party can form. Something along the lines that Bloomberg and Thomas Friedman wanted to happen this year. They have the money to get it going.
Blouise, Obama had a bigger victory in 2008, and the tea party roared back in 2010 so who knows if there really is a realignment.
SwM,
I don’t know if you read this last night but during Romney’s concession speech last night I kept hearing music so I went to the pantry and opened my back door and there was my neighbor, a real, true/blue teabagger and Ron Paul devotee, playing TAPS on his bugle. The notes were bouncing off the waves on the Lake and it was haunting.
oops their. I have had very little sleep. I have no sympathy for them.