American Political Insanity Explained

Credit Digby for linking me up with Battachio at Vagabond Scholar. This linky little primer epitomizes the source of a lot of frustration.

1. The Bush years were absolutely disastrous, on multiple fronts.

2. Those disasters were the direct result of movement conservative ideology, and horrible mismanagement by the Bush administration and the GOP.

3. The majority of the American public rejected the Bush/GOP approach in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

4. The Republicans looked at all of the above, and said: "Let's propose the same policies as Bush."

They added, "Let's obstruct all legislation and presidential appointments, and all attempts to clean up the messes left by Bush and our party."

(The conservative base looked at all of the above, and said, "Bush and the Republicans weren't far right enough.")

5. The American media looked at all of the above, and said: "Obama and the Democrats should adopt the Republicans' policies."

They added, "That would be bipartisan. And America is a center-right nation. When voters said they wanted change, that meant they wanted the Bush approach. They didn't want the Republicans to change their policies or their level of cooperation."

Furthermore: "The million teabaggers gathering on the National Mall to call Obama a fascist, socialist baby-killer who will institute death panels to kill white grandmas have a point."

I didn't re-link the well supported article so if you wanna see the basis go check it out. The status quo is a Republican victory. And to Democrats in DC I say, if you allow them to successfully demonize any populist plan before its implemented then they have you on the defensive. And if you break and run, don't expect us to have your back in November. As one very frustrated man emphasized today: the definition of insanity is repeating the same process expecting different conclusions.