The Passion of the Right -- NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Charles M. Blow

[unaffiliated liberal]

Op-Ed Columnist

The Passion of the Right

By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: November 13, 2009

In 354 days, the dead will rise. Or so believe Republicans.

They believe that their suffering and forbearance in the face of an overzealous, hyperliberal left will culminate in a 2010 resurrection of the battered Republican brand.

Case in point: After G.O.P. victories in Virginia last week, Representative Eric Cantor, the House Republican whip, exclaimed that voters are “looking for change. ... The Republican resurgence begins again tonight!”

Unfortunately, he’s probably right, in part at least. They are likely to make significant gains, not because of their anachronous tenets, but because of historical patterns and an electorate exasperated with seeming Democratic ineptitude.

According to a Gallup poll on Wednesday, in a generic 2010 Congressional matchup, Republicans moved ahead of Democrats 48 percent to 44 percent. Now generic polls have to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, they do measure the mood of the populace, and it doesn’t look good for Democrats.

The most striking finding in the poll was the margin for Republicans among independents. It grew from 1 percentage point in July to 22 percentage points in November. This is important because according to the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey, independents are now nearly as large a group as Democrats and Republicans combined.

You might ask yourself, how can Republicans be seen as the agents of change when the economic calamity we're experiencing is largely their fault? Unfortunately, it appears Americans see change as anything other than the current norm. Add to that, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats aren't exactly delivering on their message of change. It seems they'd rather make nice with the an opposing party that never learned to make nice.

I was a registered Democrat ever since I was old enough to vote. I switched my party allegiance to Unaffiliated after President Obama made it clear he wouldn't go after Bush and Cheney even in the face of KNOWN wrongdoing. It was a very hard for me to follow through on my decision but the recent weak attempts at health care reform by the Democrats have only reinforced my decision.

A stark warning to the Democratic Party and President Obama; get about doing the job you were hired to do or you'll be replaced by your predecessors, no matter how bad they were. Americans have been conditioned to vote for only two parties so, as unbelievable as it may sound, they'll vote for the opposite side in the name of change no matter if it brings them same results they voted against when they hired you.

[depakid]

1. "an electorate exasperated with seeming Democratic ineptitude."

That would be the bottom line.

If things continue as they have been- progressives will stay home. Simple as that.

[CrispyQ]

3. You are absolutely right. The dems win or lose on the liberals showing up to vote.

The dems have played the "Who else are you going to vote for card?" too often. The liberals are fed up with that assumption & they will stay home or vote green. I suspect most will just stay home.

Many of our elected democrats are now courting the religious vote, a trend I find appalling. The extremist religious ones will not vote dem. The number of religious voters the dems gain will not make up for the number of liberals who stay home if this party continues to veer to the right.

[annabanana]

2. To me it looks like the only prescriptive is an AGGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE

AGENDA! Making the differences between us and them as glaring as possible.

[CrispyQ]

4. Why is that so difficult for our elected leaders to see?

:banghead:

They do stupid things like focus the un-decided voter. Why do we give such a small group so much power? The biggest segment of the voting population is the non-voters! If the People saw leaders representing the People instead of the corporate class, voting numbers would go up & those new voters would likely vote dem. But, you don't get the big bucks from the corps if you represent the People. It's fucking insane. They need our votes to get in office so they can then represent the big corporations to get enough money to run a campaign to try to convince us why we should vote for them. :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[unaffiliated liberal]

5. Here is the rest of the Op-Ed piece for those who don't have Times online access

And, it gets worse for the Democrats. The Gallup poll was of registered voters, not likely voters who skew more Republican, in part because fewer young people vote in midterm elections.

Let’s take a look at how these factors played out in the recent gubernatorial races. In Virginia and New Jersey, the percentage of voters under age 44 dropped 18 and 14 percentage points, respectively, from last November to this November. And what of the all-important independents Obama narrowly won in both states? They voted overwhelmingly for the Republican candidates.

Cantor is also right that the people want change — still. They trusted Democrats to deliver. The Democrats haven’t, not yet at least, and pleas for patience come at a price. If voters’ thirst remains unsated, they will change politicians until politicians change policies.

The party that wins the White House generally loses Congressional seats in the midterm, but this Democratic-controlled government has particular issues. Its agenda has been hamstrung by a perfect storm of politics: the Republicans’ surprisingly effective obstructionist strategy, a Democratic caucus riddled with conservative sympathizers and a president encircled by crises and crippled by caution.

And, the most important pocketbook issue — jobs — hasn’t been the priority that it should be. History may eventually judge these Democrats favorably. Who knows? But real-time anxiety threatens to undermine them.

Jobs may be a lagging indicator of economic recovery, but consecutive summers of “staycations” may be a leading indicator of political realignment.

I sincerely hope President Obama and the Democratic congress wake up and smell the coffee before 2010 becomes a repeat of 1994.

Hopes were so high after President Obama's victory last year. After the Democrats won majorities in both houses. Then this insane fixation on bipartisanship with Republicans who have NO intention of EVER working with Democrats, whose only goal is to take down President Obama the way they took down President Clinton.

Republicans would rather see the nation fail than see President Obama and the Democrats succeed. You can't work with people like Boehner and Cantor. Bipartisanship is a myth. President Obama and the Democratic congress have to reverse the damage caused by the Republican Party over the past eight years or they'll suffer the consequences at the polls in 2010, 2012, and beyond.

Voters didn't elect Democrats because they wanted four more years. They elected Democrats because they demanded change. If President Obama and the Democratic Party doesn't start delivering on their promise of change then the Republicans, as strange as this twisted logic sounds, will defeat them with the same strategy. In a nightmare scenario of back to the future, Chris Christie, a Bush appointed federal prosecutor with serious issues regarding ethics and cronyism, just won the governorship on a message of change right here in the usually very blue state of New Jersey, because Democratic voters and young voters just didn't bother to come out and vote. Shades of 2010 and 2012 if something isn't done, and soon.

Give up on the bipartisan crap and deliver the change we were promised. Start kicking ass and taking names. It took a near depression to finally wake up American voters in 2008. Sitting back and depending on American voters to realize the game the Republicans are running on them has never worked except for the Republicans.