Sore
Losermen
By David Michael Green
17 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
The last time the American public
was so disenchanted with the state of national politics, there was a
war going on and near civil war at home.
Indeed, so
surly is the current public mood about the country being on the wrong
track that you'd almost think there is a war going on now! But, of course,
since there's no draft, no tax increase, and no pictures of battle,
or of bodies coming back to Dover Air Force Base, I'm sure I must be
mistaken about that.
So what gives?
Why are people so dissatisfied, telling pollsters in record numbers
that the country has gone astray?
There's a
simple answer, but the regressive right is desperate that you not hear
it or think about it. You see, there's been an ideological revolution
going on in America. It began in the 1980s with Reagan kleptocracy (in
that sense, it's been a bit of an evolutionary revolution - however
oxymoronic (or just plain moronic) that idea may be), but has really
hit stride in the seven tortuous years of the Little Bush regime.
And the thing
is, people don't like it.
Indeed, one
could explain the public mood quite succinctly, as follows: The right
sought power in America. They got it. They implemented their agenda.
Unfettered. It sucked. People hate it.
That's really
just about it.
And what
kills me is how these guys are both such lousy winners and lousy losers.
Maybe they're just lousy, period. All I know is that they had it all
- Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court. They had a national
trauma which gave legitimacy to a stolen presidency and immediately
jacked it up from its 50 percent approval rating and rapidly descending
trajectory into stratospheric levels of support. They had the world
loving America for the first time in a long time, and they had international
support for attacking the country's purported enemies.
Now it's
all gone. And, while you'll hear rumblings about Dan Rather this, and
Tom Daschle that, the simple truth is that the policies of the regressive
agenda failed precisely because of the political success of the regressive
movement.
That's right.
(Very right, actually.) These folks are very good at campaigning and
complaining, and especially so in an environment in which no one pushes
back. They can demonize like nobody's business (except Wall Street's
business, of course). They can fearmonger better than any dimestore
preacher or fire-and-brimstone pope. They can bully just like Tailgunner
Joe McCarthy taught them so well how to do. All of which means that
if the press is too fearful to call them on it, and the 'opposition
party' is hardly worthy of either word in that label, they can win elections.
But when
they transition from the disloyal opposition to actually governing,
they run into a small problem, which is that people don't happen to
like their policies.
I know, it's
amazing isn't it? I mean, what's not to like about deceit, death and
incompetence?
They were
(minimally) asleep at the wheel during America's most severe domestic
military attack in history, and are surprised that we might find that
troubling.
They identify
an enemy and claim that this person and his movement attacked the country,
then they fail to come close to defeating this enemy in six years of
war. Who's ready to sign-up for that?
They bring
us another war, based on lies, which turns into a quagmire based on
lies, and which has nothing remotely to do with American security other
than to radically diminish it. Then they belittle us as disloyal for
opposing the moral, fiscal and humanitarian disasters they've made.
They polarize
the country economically in the name of their radical (supposed) free
market ideas, which turn out to have a lot more to do with privileging
certain elites than with privileging nobody, as per the theory. Then,
as we are being gouged paying for gas, food and mortgages, they are
astonished that we don't give them credit for the wonderful state of
the economy. Hey, the Dow's up! What's wrong with you people?
They offer
us record-setting deficits in place of record-setting surpluses, and
are shocked that we aren't interested in such a golden opportunity to
go broke.
They create
a giant new government benefit structured to enrich insurance and pharmaceutical
industries, while maybe incidentally also helping seniors once in a
while, and they wonder why we're not enthusiastic.
They attempt
to destroy Social Security, one of the most successful government programs
of all time, in order to further enrich the already fabulously wealthy,
and can't imagine that we wouldn't be all over that.
They allow
us to suffer and die from diseases which might well have been cured
by now, were it not for the fact that the religious radicals to which
they cater have imposed their extreme fundamentalist views on the entire
country. Then they're astonished that we choose health and longevity
over blastocysts in petri dishes.
They legislate
by an act of Congress intervention into a personal family tragedy, and
are amazed that we aren't all clamoring to be treated like the Terri
Schiavo family.
They block
health care for children while uninhibitedly enriching crony contractors
in Iraq and wonder why we don't celebrate their twisted values.
They demonize
gays and minorities and immigrants and liberals in order to divert attention
from their real kleptocracy agenda, and we're supposed to feel good
about how they've restored dignity to American politics.
They imagine
that good governance involves poor preparation before a natural disaster,
criminal negligence during it, and shameful disinterest afterwards,
and can't quite fathom why even an embarrassingly intimidated American
press can no longer withhold its criticisms.
They not
only stand by and do nothing about the planet's most serious environmental
crisis ever, but they actually block other countries from rescuing themselves,
all in order to maintain fossil fuel industry profits. And they wonder
why we don't beg for more of that.
They turn
our country into a hated international bully, proud to be an aggressor,
a torturer and a hypocrite, and then they're shocked that we don't find
that a compelling self-image.
They trample
the Constitution in every way imaginable, from checks and balances to
separation of church and state to due process to illegal search and
seizure to stealing elections. After constantly telling us how much
we should revere the Founders, they are somehow surprised that we don't
approve of seeing their creation being trashed.
And this
is just for starters...
The only
thing really surprising about any of this reaction is that anyone would
be surprised about it at all.
Imagine if
George W. Bush had campaigned on a platform of decreased national security,
massive debt, environmental catastrophe, economic disparity, political
polarization, national shame, Constitution shredding, withholding healthcare
from children, killing Social Security, negligence in preventing a major
attack, more negligence as a major city drowned, needless and endless
wars based on lies, and massive human rights violations. A real winning
agenda, eh? Who wouldn't want to vote for that?
This is why
the success of the regressive movement has proved to be its undoing.
They got control of every institution in American government (which
is still mostly true, and will continue to be true of the Supreme Court
regardless of what happens next November). They did everything they
wanted to do to satisfy their kleptocratic little (stone) hearts. It
hasn't exactly been popular, and they are thus being shown to the door.
And if Democrats could ever take the unimaginably courageous leap of
actually standing for something on principle, regressives would not
only be getting shown to the door, they'd be getting picked up by the
scruff of their Brooks Brothers collars and tossed right through it.
(For my money, the most shocking thing about the 2008 election is that
Republicans have any reason to be even showing up. They can certainly
thank the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for that.)
In November
and December of 2000, the right did something very clever, which undoubtedly
resulted in them being able to shove their candidate across the finish
line in that (s)election. They got Bush to be declared the presumptive
winner, then they made 'resolving' the Florida problem seem like an
urgent crisis that needed quick attention. This turned the clock into
their friend as the meter ran down, and it made the Gore-Lieberman campaign
appear to be petulantly trying to undo valid election results. Among
their ranks, a very clever, though disgustingly cynical sign appeared
at that time, mimicking in language and design the Democratic election
banner. It said "Sore Loserman", and it helped win the battle
of perceptions that got Bush into the White House. Cute, eh?
Ah, but now
the tables have turned. The right won, but winning has turned into losing.
And the depth of the political price ultimately to be paid for supporting
eight years of Bushism is still unknown. Virtually everyone, domestically
and internationally, who associated themselves with this monster has
paid for it in the form of political suicide. It is quite possible that
the Republican Party itself could go down that same path, especially
as the price and crimes of the administration become clearer over time,
when they're more exposed, least protected from investigation and prosecution,
and when long deferred costs come slamming upside the body politic with
a real vengeance in the coming decade.
If regressives
whine about their disintegration in the face of an angry public, I'll
be there, big smile on my face, just silently waving a little sign in
my hand.
Can you guess
what it will say?
David Michael Green is a professor of political science
at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers'
reactions to his articles ([email protected]),
but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond.
More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net.
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