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Had Akin withdrawn, the GOP would have likely secured the seat in Missouri.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, Oh well, I guess you and Donald Trump will have a miserable four years.
Swarthmore Mom,
To the best of my knowledge, I have stated the facts about Obama, but perhaps that is one and the same thing as “bashing” him. Anyway, thank you for giving me permission to continue doing so. Certainly to mention that he kills American citizens without judicial review, that he has stood by as thousands of citizens have been removed from their homes by illegal foreclosures, that he has done little or nothing regarding global warming, etc., etc., sounds like an amazing “bash”; I completely agree it’s something most presidents would find heinous as charges. But I don’t remember saying anything about Obama that wasn’t common knowledge or backed up by multiple reputable sources including that one of his first priorities is going to be a Grand Bargain that makes unnecessary cuts to the saftey net in return for small token taxes on the rich.
To all those who MikeS was too tired to mention and to MikeS himself.
We use in Sweden the phrase “no one mentioned and no one forgotten”…it helps avoid the problem of the attractiveness of exemplification leading to a missed mention.
And fór the non-mentioned. Remember it is the wheels who squeak loudest that get greased, speaking of myself of course. It even helped me to get on JTs activity list to celebrate 13 million.
Loud is heard. Images, even negative ones, make lasting and vivid impressions.
Is that enough self-deprecation of myself for today?
Humbly yours,
😉
Bed time it is 2 AM.
bettykath,
I think it would work at the presidential level in the same way that it does down ballot.
Swarthmore mom 1, November 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm
bettykath, I really don’t think Obama’s goal is to have a feudal society.
—————–
He’s continuing the wars but in other places; he’s accelerated the use of drones in many places, including in the US; he signed the NDAA; he has a kill list; he’s escalated the deportation of undocumented immigrants; he’s escalated the attack on whistle-blowers while rewarding those whose deeds were exposed. Need I go on? It’s a process. He’s just one of those taking us there.
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raff, How do you see instant runoff voting working for a presidential election? It’s great for single district elections, e.g. mayors or legislators, and you’re right, it’s essential for additional parties to be taken seriously.
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Don’t count the extreme right out. They lost the presidency and the Senate but they kept the House. They didn’t start this movement yesterday. They are in it for the long haul. Expect them to regroup and come back.
Damn, I see that TonyC said it and much better.
I will add, although he may have said it too, (not fully read yet) that political parties are created in Sweden,
by finding a “cause” which has wide appeal but is unaddressed, or by finding an group with needs who thay feel are not getting the attention that they feel it is worth.
Obama can sayL let’s go fix the nation, or even let’s go fix the world as he did one time. But it is hard for a new party to sell that.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/hippies-wander-into-the-lions-den-maul-lions/264921/ My daughter sent me this article by Ta-nehsi Coates. It describes yesterday’s election well.
Gene’s right, it’s a lament. Literary by all means, but if you insist on reading it literally you miss the point — though the implied truths within seem to stand. Prescribe a Prozac or two for Chris, or for yourself if you can’t separate. But, hey, it’s just a creative way of expression. Still legal, I presume.
Working through the pile I am long after where you are now.
It happens that when I hear my “own” ideas when they come from other’s mouths, that I wiil examine them again with a critical eye.
Several here say hear hear and hell yeah to MikeS call for a third party.
I wonder what will provide the necessary force and source of enerby to do the work, yes work, to establish a base, a place to collect forces to make a separate political program, to give voters the reason to change parties.
Is cleaning up the mess enough as a motivator, a mission.
sure we think we know what needs to be done, but do we know the insides of politics and of running a party, financing it, and pushing an agenda on local, state,and national levels. That is a lot of savvy that is needed.
There is also the question of how many are willing to spend years seeing their votes disappear in causes that have no effect. To see their ideas stolen, perverted and sold to the voters to steal votes under a false flag.
Think about it.
Tony,
I don’t think it’s reverse psychology either but that’s the only model that makes rational sense in asking the why behind the article. It is more likely as you point to simply a lament. But on the issue of sociopaths in office? Without question that is a core problem. There is a Constitutional prohibition on religious tests for qualifying for office. There is no Constitutional prohibition on psychological testing. The modern tests for spotting socio- and psychopathy are really quite accurate. I for one would have no issue at all with passing such tests as non-socio/psychopaths being a requirement to run for any public office. Sure, a small percentage would slip through, but it’s a good place to start.
“John Weaver, a Republican strategist who worked on the presidential campaigns of Senator John McCain and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., has long argued that the party’s reliance on the votes of older white men was putting it on a demographically unsustainable path.
“We have a choice: we can become a shrinking regional party of middle-aged and older white men, or we can fight to become a national governing party,” Mr. Weaver said in an interview. “And to do the latter we have to fix our Hispanic problem as quickly as possible, we’ve got to accept science and start calling out these false equivalencies when they occur within our party about things that are just not true, and not tolerate the intolerant.”
~NYT
Amen, Brother. From your mouth to that Republican deity, Rush Limbaugh’s, ear.
raff, Defeating Joe Walsh is something to celebrate!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some positive changes went on in the democratic party this year. We became the party that is pro-gay marriage.
Re: Chris Hedges: Wow, he sounds like me. With better references.
@Gene: I don’t think it is reverse psychology, I think it is despair at the choices before him. I agree with him, essentially he is saying the sociopaths rule the world and good luck figuring out how to fix it.
@Mike S: I voted Libertarian for President, the first time since I was 18 I did NOT vote for the Democrat. I also voted Libertarian for judges, for whom I routinely vote Libertarian; and I voted to increase my taxes for a grade-school initiative.
The difference between a “third force” that influences school board elections and a “third party” is a detail lost upon me. A coalition may not be an actual “party,” but if it is going to have some lasting influence then it is the equivalent; like the “Tea Party” is not a real party (with candidates separate from Dem/Rep) but it does aim to influence elections.
Tony,
Part of the Conservative movents work since Goldwater has been to run for schoolboard elections to influence educational policies, censor curriculum and impose their version of patriotism. By building up from grass roots level they create an infrastructure that can influence the next level of government and so on up. Partularly successful in the South and the rest of the Bible Belt, The most successful method of organising is at the bottom working up.
What Swarthmore mom said!
BB, We shall see. I am going to enjoy the victory for today. There is no election for two years. Obama will not be running again so you can bash him freely as you have done in the past. I am staying with party of Liz Warren. It is amazing how Wall St. blamed the sell-off of the banks today on one woman. The third parties did not effect the presidential election in one single state. For all the hoopla on this blog about third parties, the numbers were the lowest they have been.
Mike Spindell:
His sense of life is very bleak. Berty Wooster would have a field day with that article.
“What ho Jeeves, that Hedges fellow has his tie on a bit too tight.”
“Very good sir, may I interest you in a Green Swizzle?”
“Yes, that is how my head feels after that read.”
As is frequently the case, Swarthmore mom, I hope you are right, but in the meantime perhaps we should look more e closely at Mike S’s proposal for a third way after all, at least if it would be possible to put you at the head of whatever movement/party/option came out of it.
No matter how much I disagree with your assessment of Obama, I think you personally would stick to the “right course” regarding such issues as the safety net, and that, in spite of the enormous pressure you would (and Obama will) face.
In the meantime, let’s just see how right or wrong GG is on this one…
Mike,
I have to agree with the analysis that the Hedges piece qualifies as propaganda without question. It bears all the hallmarks. But like you, I’m a bit puzzled as to the why behind it. That’s the first piece I’ve ever read by him, but taken your word he’s well respected in progressive circles, it seems a curious ploy vis a vis the strongly implicit anti-voting message. Reverse psychology perhaps but if so poorly calibrated. The dour cynicism leaves no “sliver of light” for the reverse to play to. Reverse psychology really only works if you provide an out for the target. An odd piece of work.
Maybe Greenwald can reform the republican party. 😉