Some assembly required (h/t darkblack for the wonderful starter kit.)
It turns out that however often the donor and brain caste of the GOP meet in quiet rooms and strategize about assembling an acceptable Establishment Candidate out of snips from old Jerry Ford speeches and dollops of Ronald Reagan's hair dye and Third Way/No Labels Both Siderist soft-core pornspeak, it turns out the Base of their party doesn't really give a shit about their schemes anymore.
The Base -- which the donor and brain caste of the GOP has labored ceaselessly to flatter and cultivate -- wants a shiny new war against the scary Mooslims. And Moar Military. Gargantuan tax cuts and gettin' rid of them there regulations that keep them from being rich as pirates. Balance the Budget and Build the Wall! Also end Planned Parenthood...and moochers and climate change hoaxers should be beaten in the streets. The Base wants torch-lit rallies full of spellbinding speeches about their surpassing awesomeness and moral superiority. They want to make a bonfire of the Enlightenment and dance around the flames, armed to the teeth, braying about Freedumb and Murrica.
And EstaBushment Fix It Man Jeb! ain't that guy. From the WaPo:
Things are bad and getting worse for Jeb Bush. Just look at this chart....Six percent. Six! That's roughly one-fifth the support enjoyed by Donald Trump, the leader in the new Post-ABC survey. It's also a precipitous fall from Bush's peak in March when he stood at 21 percent in the poll. There have been four Post-ABC polls done since late July; Bush started at 12, went to 8 percent in September, 7 percent in October and is now down to 6 percent.Yes, you are right to point out, Bush supporter, that there is no such thing as a national primary — that this is a made-up construction of the media. The problem with that argument is two-fold: 1) Bush isn't in better shape in Iowa (5th) or New Hampshire (5th) than he is nationally and 2) this race is more nationalized than any in recent memory thanks to the presence of Donald Trump in it.The national polling — and in particular, Jeb's trend line — reflects the fact that the buzz surrounding him has absolutely cratered over the past few months. The strongest argument Bush had going for him was his inevitability; he was the front-runner and was going to stay that way so you might as well get on board or run the risk of being left behind. With that message now rendered useless, Bush continues to cast around for another one that might work: One week he is the "fix it" guy, the next he is the one who is serious enough and strong enough to deal with the threat of terrorism.None of those messages — nor the $20 million his Right to Rise super PAC has spent on his behalf in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — has worked...
The Base fucking well wants Barrabas, it wants him now, and will not line up behind anyone who won't promise to deliver.
7 comments:
Somebody didn't heed the warnings about the intelligence of mobs.
Somebody did not study the history of demagoguery in the US, or else they thought that that stuff didn't really apply in the 21st century.
Somebody did not notice that A Face in the Crowd was a movie, not a documentary, and therefore ended well.
And somebody (well, actually, somebodies) never figured out that the golem always wins.
(I am reminded that the crowd that "chose" Barabbas was not a random assembly; they were mostly scribes, Pharisees, and their friends.)
And sticks the landing, nicely done! The rabble has been roused, and there is no telling what they'll do. I'm still unsure of what Trump thinks he's doing, even. Is he for real, or is he trying to destroy the party, because that's what it looks like he's doing, from the outside of it.
The mask has finally slipped a bit, on the topic you've been hammering on for years. Will there be a pay no attention to the man behind the curtain moment? It seems like any number of things should have been that moment, by now. It's the key to the whole operation, they won't let go easily. But how engaged in doublethink does one need to be, in order to be 'fooled' by the whole charade? (speaking of, I have a slight disagreement on your post from the other day. The poor white man is complicit in swallowing the lie, and goes along with it, in order to keep the poor brown man below him, on the ladder. This goes all the way back, not just the last 35 years (but the last 35 years have varnished it into a volcanic glass-hard chunk of the only thing the republican party stands for (as far as the rubes go) today is fear/hatred of the other shit.)
Made a late donation, happy blogiverary. Been reading your blog going on 7 years or so, been one of my go-to's. You struck upon the key problem years ago. Yer killing it lately, but then again, the news has been right in your sweet spot, like the red zone of baseballs in Ted Williams' art of hitting, but then again (again), you've been saying the same shit for years :)
And a hat tip to you lovely people as well.
...but, really.
After all America needs the sort of ubermensch who can see people leaping off of tall buildings in a single bound with his own eyes...4 miles away from his fortress of solitude.
America needs the sort of plucky fiscal resilience that only having 4 bankrupt-oopsies can provide, reducing a personally inherited fortune to the same level that one could have had easily by un-Americanly playing it safe and stashing the cash in T-bills, while decades of seafood platters & boat drinks are served on the beach by non-uppity servants in crisply starched white jackets.
America needs the sort of youthful, brawny foresight that gets the deferment done...and done...and done...yep, done again...and keeps your own ass combat-free so that fat old future self can get his bellicose on nice and comfy-like.
America needs torture, and lying, and badges sewn onto clothes-es, because these are a few of his favorite things.
Gosh, America's getting kind of needy.
;>)
@darkblack
America's become the creepy, stalker girlfriend who will boil your children's bunnies unless you divorce your wife.
I respectfully disagree, Ms. O'Neill.
America is a great nation...with immense problems.
I fervently hope that, with concurrent & shared strong efforts, some of these problems can be bettered through knowledge and action.
As for the other 25% of the problems, I'm afraid that any hypothetical solutions I might offer might seem somewhat Procrustean by comparison.
;>)
I agree with you DG, about the perniciousness of the American media as personified by everyone's favourite gut-worm, David Brooks.
I also too agree with you about the depraved depths that the Republican party has slithered to.
And you'd know better than I the overall craziness quotient of the Veryuglycan supporter base.
But all of these factors prod my percipience towards conviction that rational America (they must be in there somewhere) will rally overwhelmingly behind the moral, logical, ethical and let's face it, sweet-cranky-ole-Granpaw that is Bernie Sanders.
I think it's most important that Sander's family was butchered by the Nazis and that, once he's pussy-footed around Billary, he will focus the full depth of his genetic knowledge onto the hysteria-inducing miscreants currently strutting the political stage.
I pray that his opponent is the the coddled chump, the Blustering Blancmange; because it's my belief that Bernie will chew him up, spit him out and smear him into his own dirt.
@darkblack
Thank you for the perspective. And for the impetus for me to look up "procrustean". I need to start focusing more on what's going on my in community. The people in my neighborhood give me hope.
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