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Had Akin withdrawn, the GOP would have likely secured the seat in Missouri.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
BB, Greenwald was wrong about Bush, the Iraq War, Ron Paul, Romney and many other things…. a bunch of sore losers.
The discussion above about the future of the parties and what needs to be done so that the 99% can have some representation is an excellent one, ( I agree with Tony C. that a Third Way won’t solve the representation issue) but two of most immediate problems we have are the Grand Bargain and global warming.
Concerning the former, Glen Greenwald has an article that lists almost prophetically what is going to happen over the next few days to few months in the on-going effort to prepare the social safety net for privatization. It is so prescient, and so easy to watch becoming true or false over the next few days and weeks that I think the relevant section is worth block-quoting, but here is the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/07/obama-progressives-left-entitlements
Mike, FWIW, I am aware of a number of “preppies” who are the product of elite private schools which left scars. You seem to allude to this by comparing him to Bush, Romney and Trump who may have had quite different outcomes. Think Holden Caulfield. Being the presumed child of privilege (his father was a minister) does not guarantee that one will have the sort of experiences that generate thankfulness some outsiders might assume obvious, even ungrateful if not felt.
I’m not a huge fan of Hedges, in good part because I can’t follow where he leads sometimes (as you might find as well) — and I’m not about to psychoanalyze him — but I can understand a good deal of how he got there.
“Mike S: What did my exit poll look like? 🙂
Malisha,
Sorry I forgot to mention you, but as I said my mind is foggy today. As for your vote my guess is Obama, but only after a struggle with your conscience. 🙂
“I don’t know if Hedges dissed a few of your own sacred cows, but I suspect you and he would have more to agree upon then not; he just isn’t the cheery sort who sugar coats much.”
Don,
You’re right, his view of the setup of society is close to mine. I think I see the world pretty clearly, from my perspective of course and that vision can easily become very dark if I let it control me. However, I am a trained psychotherapist of the Existential variety and so as one of the commenters on the article opined, I believe that we create the reality we live in. I make no demands on how anyone else deals with the bittersweet nature of life, but for myself I choose to believe that humanity can change and that the sociopathic need to have power over others can be overcome. With personal knowledge of much of the bleak side of life, I choose to have hope as I live on and so the world is not only tolerable, but exquisitely sweet.
Mike wrote:
“One person who I’m sorry I forgot is Darren Smith, who I respect for his intelligence and compassion.”
Thank you Mike, as my respect for yours is equal. Though I tend to think of myself as a little too cynical of certain things 🙂
I found that Hedges discouragement of voting in lieu of massive attempts at voter disenfranchisement and suppression most discouraging and untimely.
Gene and Bron,
I was astounded by the darkness of the article. I’ve been a fan and registered at NationofChange for years, but I think this is only the second time I’ve ever commented there. Reading it, is like reading Kafka, without the art. It is the type of article that may push an idealist with depressive tendencies into suicide. While some of his analysis is familiar to me and on point, there are two things that stick out, besides the hopelessness of the vision.
The first is that being a preppie he is a child of the elite, someone like Bush, Romney and Trump that had so much given to him. That it affected him so darkly is almost the direct opposite reaction that those three had to their privilege. However, it’s like Paul Ryan taking a fast foot job as a teenager, there’s a big difference between choosing to work there and having to work there. Whatever his view of the Elite, he always has choices, while most of us don’t.
The second thing that sticks out baffles me and that is what was his purpose in writing this article. As one commenter there suggested, it almost smacks of propaganda to discourage voting. If so, why? He has been a well-respected person in progressive circles for a while and he writes for the Nation?
Yeah, Mike, thanks for the referral to Hedges. I only look at him occasionally because, true, he can come across as bleak. But it is a bleakness rooted in the bleak existential environment that has been evolving in this country for decades. It behooves some to give eloquent voice to it, as Hedges does. Also, we went to the same college, so when he refers, if by citing its diminishment, to the crucial role of education, at least some sorts of education, to prod us and give us the tools to think, I can imagine walking across the quad and receiving the same seeds of thought that many of us did in college.
And I doubt Hedges would at all dispute your notion of the importance of giving people the tools to make up their own mind. Indeed, it is in part the failure to do so that leads to the results informing such a bleak assessment of our condition. And, I must say, it seems Hedges has ‘done’ quite a lot by way of pushing the envelope, not just ivory tower cogitating and opining, to seek to push back upon the encroaching suffocation we are subject to.
By way of supporting the right to be bleak (how’s that for a self-defeating construction!), it doesn’t take a stretch at all, I think, to see the prophecies and assessments of Orwell, Kafka, C. Wright Mills, and many other of the ‘darker’ voices as prescient, and validated. Stating the problem is, of course, not the same as the solution. But it is a necessary aspect to grasping the nature of the problem viscerally. I don’t know if Hedges dissed a few of your own sacred cows, but I suspect you and he would have more to agree upon then not; he just isn’t the cheery sort who sugar coats much.
I had wondered from a theoretical standpoint how well America would do if all the politicians just went away. Despite what they want us to believe, I feel the US could do fine without them. I don’t need a politician to run my business, buy groceries, pay bills, or watch TV with my wife. All a person needs to do is just follow the law and live their life normally.
It can be an automatic process, government agencies can handle the issues as they do. Politicians just make rules and take credit for good and blame others for bad. Even if they are elected in a democratic fashion, they are still the ruling class of a nation. One person’s king is another person’s president, it is just a matter of how they ascend to office and what their powers are.
I wonder if there will be a time when the career politican is a relic of the past and we have no need for their ilk for society to function in a polite manner.
7 Nov 2012 04:42 PM
The Single Biggest Night For Gay Rights In Electoral History
GT BALDWINVICTORY 121107
Last night, 77% of gay and lesbian voters – who made up 5% of the electorate – cast their ballots for Obama, the first president to support marriage equality, and who mentioned gays by name for the first time in the history of victory speeches. The 113th Congress, meanwhile, will be a groundbreaking one: voters elected America’s first out US senator – Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin – and sent to the House five out gay men (two of them incumbents, and one of the first out gay person of color in Congress) and an out bisexual woman (the first openly bi member of Congress). Americans also re-elected a pro-equality justice in Iowa after three pro-equality justices were ousted in 2010. And, of course, we went four for four in the marriage equality ballot measures in Maryland, Maine, Washington and Minnesota. from the Daily Beast
Mike S: What did my exit poll look like? 😀
Mike Spindell:
that is a pretty bad way to look at life. Why be so negative [Hedges], you dont get out of life alive.
Resolve to be happy, the rich and powerful are and they dont give a red rats rear end [rrre] if we are or not.
The rich and powerful werent always rich and powerful and that is the greatness of our country. Anyone can be rich and powerful if they put their mind to it. Well maybe not all but I have met some truly stupid politicians and rich people in my life so there is hope for most us.
Instead of barking about the power elite, become the philosopher king. Run for office, start a business.
I had to read a couple of pages of something positive after reading that article, it was enough to make a person say aw sh!t and give up.
That article was intellectual pornography. It gave people an excuse to give up.
From the Hedges article:
“The elites know, as Canetti wrote, that once we stop thinking we become a herd. We react to every new stimulus as if we were rats crammed into a cage. When the elites push the button, we jump. It is collective sadomasochism. And we will get a good look at it on Election Day.”
That’s why I’m the rat holding a book in one hand and giving the finger with the other, greeting the order to jump with huge sharp nasty teeth (insert picture of John Cleese as the Wizard Tim here) all the while digging holes in the wall and disposing of the spoil like William Holden in Stalag 17.
Interesting article, Mike. And I thought I have a dark outlook! The man is fairly drenched in cynicism. Great comments to the gallery there though. Good job.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/nate-silver-led-statistics-men-crush-pundits-in-election.html
Mike S, You forgot Karl Friedrich. 😉
“Mike S, You forgot Karl Friedrich”
Karl,
Is implacably tied.to his particular philosophy, but he would be kind enough to let us join him.
One person who I’m sorry I forgot is Darren Smith, who I respect for his intelligence and compassion.
@Swarthmore: It would have to be centrist party.
Precisely; but as a centrist party it would not appeal to Mike Spindell (is my guess after a few years of reading his posts). Or me, for that matter. We already have the “Constitutionalist” party, the “Green” party, the “Libertarian” party, the “Tea” party, the “Communist” party, the “Socialist” party, and perhaps some others.
None of those have gained any real traction, none of them currently present a serious challenge to the Democratic party or Republican party. (The libertarians come the closest, I guess).
The way to change politics cannot be from within politics; the only approach that can work (in my opinion) will be from outside politics and controlling the influence of money.
The problem is corrupt self-dealing in politics, and the buying of Congress by banks, individuals and corporations, and the largess and privilege they can bestow upon candidates both in office and after they have left office. While that issue remains, the super minority of Congressman that are not beholden to the top few percent cannot stand against the super majority that are beholden to the top few percent.
When the total percentage tax burden on the incomes of the rich and corporations is the same as the total percentage tax burden on the middle class (meaning sales tax, property tax, income tax, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, gasoline tax, etc), then I may believe the problem has been solved. When celebrities and politicians that commit crimes get exactly the same sentencing and court treatment as the middle class when represented by a public defender, then I may believe the problem has been solved.
As long as the rich are preferentially treated, I will believe that preferential treatment is due to their corrupting influence on the law, lawmakers, and law enforcement.
We cannot fix a thoroughly corrupted body with a new set of ideals and principles and talking points, no matter how well we might try to explain them. Trying to create a “third force” within politics is like trying to get thieves to give back the money they stole by explaining to them why we believe theft is wrong.
Boehner speaking….please tell me he isn’t suggesting Reaganomics ala the 1980’s all ove ragain……….
True. As much as I like Mike’s idea, electoral reform must come first.
Maybe she is a blue dog but the republican was a hard core anti-woman candidate.