An interesting little story about the approval ratings, not of politicians, but of the things they've passed during the legislative years.
AND the poll that backs up those numbers. Of course, the fact a Gallup Poll admitted these numbers means that actual disapproval is almost certainly much worse, and most especially does not bode well for those who passed it.
lady red posted earlier about the primary contests. It seems the voters really hate the incumbents and are voting the bums out.
ReplyDeleteThere is a debate about the "electability" of some of the insurgent candidates. At this point I'm thinking of the Republican Party as the village that has to be destroyed in order to be saved.
Note that this may mean the "inevitable" Republican sweep of Congress may not happen this year.
But if all that happens is to replace D/ruling class with R/ruling class, then what's the point?
And I say this as someone who lacks conservative convictions in several areas.
I don't see this as a traditional "true conservative" vs "RINO" argument at all. It may seem to line up that way in places but I think those who are self-identified conservatives should understand that a great deal of support for the insurgent candidates is due to anti-incumbent / anti-"ruling class" emotion and not a "sea change" of the electorate becoming more "truly conservative".
Lewy said: "At this point I'm thinking of the Republican Party as the village that has to be destroyed in order to be saved.
ReplyDeleteNote that this may mean the "inevitable" Republican sweep of Congress may not happen this year"
I think you have something there, regrettably. It applies to both parties IMO. I also have both liberal and conservative tendencies, and find 90% of incumbents whores. The regrettable part is the chance Pelosi retains her throne. "Obie" the cipher means nothing.
Thanks Ari. You know, you read about things like the Cultural Revolution in China, and you're like, what were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteNow I think I know what they were thinking. It frightens me.
Ossified and corrupt ruling classes in charge of every civic institution, impotent in the face of decades long national decline and humiliation - what's it worth to get rid of them? Where does the rot end and the vital marrow begin? And how do you tell when you've picked up a chain saw because the scalpels just haven't done the job?
Bring on the "unelectable" candidates. Detractors will claim that they are crazy. I might agree, and vote for them anyway, because it looks like the only way.
Lewy said: "You know, you read about things like the Cultural Revolution in China, and you're like, what WERE they thinking?"
ReplyDeleteScary, but relevant comparison, I am sad to say. I DO know what the "Cultural Revolution" in China was about. Beyond pure power politics, where it manifested Leninism & Stalinist traits, it was also an attempt to express (albeit, mis-use for Mao's personal benefit) the "permanent/perpetual revolution" envisioned by Trotsky...more of the latter IMO.
This concept was re-invigorated in my thinking (things aren't quite as "swell" there as our State Department reports...there is still danger close there) by joint emails recently from a Vietnamese acquaintance and also another American "Vet" (6 years+ in country) who now revisits "The Nam" periodically....even once tried to get me to co-invest in a TCBY franchise in Saigon (it will always be "Saigon" to some old hands) when the country re-opened it doors (and he got compensated for the property he lost 30 Apr 75....yeah he'd gone "native.")
Trotsky, besides being the man who drove the Army and the original revolution, was prescient in his presumption that institutionalized power is corrupt over time. He was naive that the "proletariat" could solve all of the issues....true evil resides in "Proles" too, think Pol Pot and a guy named Adolph.
The very high "risk" in this cutting to the bone but preserving the "marrow" is that your cuts will go plumb through the marrow, and destroy the entity. It's happened to many western civilizations...beginning with ambivalence and ending with weakness masquerading as "reform."
Here were are today with much cheering over a patently unelectable ditz in Delaware (virtually no more than a Washington DC suburb) beating a 6 time incumbent in a primary. Some think Joe Biden's kid erred in not running for the Democratic candidacy. What's it take to sound more cogent than O'Donnell? Even Karl Rove thinks she's nutty. It's like in the effort to reform we've opened the doors of the asylum to the permanently ADHD people to run for office.
I wish I had answers, but at nearly 68 now, I am ambivalent, too, perhaps. I still know what manure smells like, but not so certain anymore how to clean it up. On half my mother's side of the family (Normans), the coat of arms is a fist thrusting up through the soil clenching a broken sword. I am beginning to wonder if that is prophetic?
We had our own Trotsky. I think his name was "Jefferson"...
ReplyDeleteLewy....Heh. Yeah...Jefferson, right up until he was elected President....then he converted to institutional mode.
ReplyDelete