Jonathan Alter at Newsweak has a post that is full of fail:
Why the Midterms Matter
The GOP’s agenda has to be stopped.But elections aren’t just about who wins. They’re about what happens when one or the other party wins. We’re so eager to promote ourselves with the smartest take on how President Obama and the Democrats got themselves in this pickle that we haven’t done a good job explaining the stakes. We manage to sever cause from effect.
Let’s say you’re an independent voter who wants to send Obama a message on Nov. 2. Have the media told you what that would say? Here’s a clue: moderate Republicans are extinct. With big wins, the Tea Party will transform itself from an insurgency into the driving force within the GOP. Gains in statehouses and legislatures will allow right-wingers to use the 2010 census to redraw district lines that will entrench them in power until 2020. Back in charge in Washington, they will likely block even centrist choices for courts. Extremist senators like Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn will move from being irritants on the fringe to players at the center of our politics.
The Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress for four years, including a period when they had a filibuster-proof supermajority. They have held the White House for nearly two years following eight years of George the Lesser.
So, leading into the midterm election the best argument Alter can make is “ZOMG! The Republicans are worse!!?”
That’s pathetic.
The Democrats are not facing a GOPer tsunami because of the Tea Partiers or the Chamber of Commerce. They are gonna get a big can o’ Whoop-ass opened on them by the voters because they failed to do what they were elected to do.
In 2006 and 2008 people voted for change, but all they got was more of the same old, same old.
Here’s the worst part:
Health insurers flirted with Democrats, supported them with money and got what they wanted: a federal mandate that most Americans carry health care coverage. Now they’re backing Republicans, hoping a GOP Congress will mean friendlier regulations.
The bankers and all the other malefactors of great wealth are doing the same thing. The Democrats sold out their constituents (that’s us) thinking they had some wealthy BFF’s to replace us with.
They got hustled, but we got screwed.
Hopenchange motherf**kers!
Filed under: 2010 Elections, General Tagged: | Democratic Party
Too bad all his predictive ability failed him back when this could have been avoided.
Being consistently wrong about everything seems to be the surest route to a high-paying career in journalism.
I smell flop sweat from Alter. Bout time!
The Giants are three outs away from the World Series
Great post, myiq. And I still maintain this: there will be an electoral ass-whooping in November, and again in 2012. And that ass-whooping needs to be understood, by BOTH parties:
See, Americans are not going to vote for GOP or teaparty candidates because most of the voters 100% agree, or really even want these particular people in charge. But the voting populace is fed up. And they deeply, desperately want our politicians to accept that WE are in charge, not them. And because our options are limited, people are picking up whatever “stick” is handy to try to BLUDGEON THAT FUCKING MESSAGE INTO THEIR THICK SKULLS.
The message being sent by the people is not, I don’t think, even a particularly ideological one. It’s simpler and more basic and more earnest than that. It’s the message that must be understood by them FIRST, before ideology or policy even enters into it. It’s this:
“Shut the fuck up and LISTEN. For once in your goddamned smug, focus-grouped, tweak-the-messaging-driven lives, just fucking stop and LISTEN to us.”
I think you’ve got it exactly right.
So do I. She always gets it right. :)
Woo HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
??
Oh, I see it must have something to do with baseball..
Rangers at Giants Game One – Wednesday night.
Kewl! Go Rangers!
My liver can’t take this
Go Rangers!
And take the Cowboys with you!
You can have the Cowboys!
Thank God. I almost died during that last inning. Don’t know if I can survive the WS.
Congrats to the Giants!! This should be a real good WS!!
Bobby Thomson died on August 16th.
Cody Ross is the NLCS MVP
The Giants picked him up off the scrap heap two months ago
More fail
Let’s see. Between 1991 and 2001, the Congress changed hands and the presidency changed parties twice. Between 2001 and 2010, the presidency changed parties and the Congress changed parties (at least once). Redistricting changes the map, but it doesn’t dictate ultimate party control for an entire decade.
Keep talking common sense like that, you might alleviate some of the fear mongering that Alter’s doing. ;-)
MY TEAM WON!!! THESE GUYS ARE GREAT. SAW THEM WIN TWICE THIS SUMMER PACBELL PARK. THE MANAGER BRUCE BOCHY DESERVES BIG KUDOS TOO. WAY TO GO.
If the Giants win the WS, it will be the first time since they moved to SF. I’d say it’s about time.
This is their fourth trip since I was born. I was too young to remember the first one. The second one had an earthquake. The Giants snatched defeat from the jaws of victory the third time.
I was at the earthquake. Ah, good times.
I was in south SJ, right off the Los Gatos border.
That’s like 10 miles from the epicenter as the crow flies.
I was 2 feet from a doorway. That’s bullshit about get in a doorway – I was busy trying not to fall down.
It’s when a wall actually moves and hits you that you realize nature can really mess you up.
Every once and a while Mother Nature does the Hippy Hippy Shake.
What’s the big deal?
i was at the eq. not at the ball park but within a couple of miles. that is not happening again.
The message will be:
The enemy you know is better than the one you don’t
OR
It hurts more to be betrayed by your own than strangers
Also may be: fool me once………
We can go for ever that way but it all points to Dems are no good. I am writting this and looking at my reg. card still identifing me as Dem.
Moderate Rs are not extinct! They are running the D party and the blogosphere.
Exactly.