[T]his election should be a cakewalk for the Republicans. Why isn’t it? I am afraid the answer may be that the country is closer to the point of no return than most of us believed. With over 100 million Americans receiving federal welfare benefits, millions more going on Social Security disability, and many millions on top of that living on entitlement programs–not to mention enormous numbers of public employees–we may have gotten to the point where the government economy is more important, in the short term, than the real economy. My father, the least cynical of men, used to quote a political philosopher to the effect that democracy will work until people figure out they can vote themselves money. I fear that time may have come.
Andy McCarthy argues that conservatism and Randism has been failed:
The people coming of age in our country today have been reared very differently from those who were just beginning to take the wheel in the early 1980s. They have marinated in an unapologetically progressive system that prizes group discipline and narrative over free will and critical thought.
Richard Fernandez argues the American People are "Smart Women" making "Foolish Choices:"
A radio talk show host characterized President Obama’s DNC convention address as the “boyfriend speech”. She compared his pleading with the screed those deadbeat suitors give they realize they are about to dumped and who promise to bring back the magic. [...] Any reasonable girl would show him the door. But as readers probably know and much to the surprise of John Hinderaker of Powerline, the “boyfriend” speech very often works. There’s a better than average chance in real life that the girl will not only forget about the IOUs, broken promises and BS — she’ll come busting out the gate after him. [...]
Unfortunately [...] this sort of charm — the kind that keeps ladies coming back to their boyfriends after they’ve been bamboozled, betrayed and generally given short shrift, is either something you are born with or not. President Obama, whatever his faults, has got lots of this charm. As Charles Krauthammer put it anyone who thinks everyone eventually sees through this smarminess should remember that the public’s idea of a caring person is still Bill Clinton. Well, there’s always 2016.
Mark Kleiman points and laughs:
From Denial to Anger: wingnuts v. the American people
I’m always happy to see people dealing with reality, even if they do so badly. So it’s good to see a faction of the right-wing commentariat pivot from pretending that Clint Eastwood gave a great speech and the Democrats had a bad convention – while explaining that the polling results showing otherwise are rigged – to trying to figure out why their guy is losing an election they thought was a tap-in, and still think should by rights be a tap-in. They’ve moved on from Denial to Anger. [...]
The basic problem is with the voters. Neither of them proposes the Brechtian solution of dissolving the electorate and choosing a new one, but it’s not clear why not.
The American People are not worthy of Ayn Rand, Republicans and conservatism appears to be the argument. For once, I agree with them. We do not deserve that.
