Paranoia to the Right, Incompetence to the Left
09 November 2009 10:09 am by Taylor Marsh
Stuck in this mess with you.
Paul Krugman weighs in on the meaning of NY-23 today. It’s the exact point I made last week when I wrote that Sarah Palin was now the GOP establishment, which he takes further to diagnosis as political paranoia coming from the right. America is being take away from them! Man the barricades! Translated it means that the powerful emotion coming from the right, represented by Palin’s pack, Glenn Beck and Rush, could fuel a 2010 onslaught that could win, but wouldn’t be at all good for the country.
Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone.
In the short run, this may help Democrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.
In fact, the party of Limbaugh and Beck could well make major gains in the midterm elections. The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short, so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism. Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration.
… The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.
When you add Speaker Pelosi’s breathtakingly total mishandling of her own Democratic caucus on the Stupak amendment, which has women absolutely furious at the revolting incompetence of the Democratic majority, you’ve got a perfect storm for a midterm collapse.
Amy Sullivan weighed in over the weekend on what on Stupak and Pelosi’s handling of the health care fight, and even if her rationale towards the pro-(selective) life contingent is bankrupt, she does get a few things right.
Don’t the Democrats control Congress? How did Nancy Pelosi get to the point where she didn’t have enough votes in her own caucus to pass health reform unless she paved the way for language that, as Jon Cohn puts it, “mak[es] it more likely that millions of American women will no longer be able to purchase insurance that covers abortion services”?
The right revs up, as the Democratic base becomes more demoralized. Bad omens rising.
