Cocktailhag, the blog

Well, it seems that, in the eyes of the gasbags, anyway, the Republicans are headed for a very big 2010…  The heady days of the “Contract with America” are here again, though of course no one has bothered to read the fine print, partly because there isn’t any, but partly because they don’t care.  You see, on television there has to be an ongoing cage match between the barely distinguishable parties, even though everyone knows that nothing different is supposed to actually happen after all the sound and fury.  The Republicans have chosen to run against the usual things, and then some, and the Democrats have chosen to do the same, having few accomplishments and an increasingly and humiliatingly depleted “agenda” to offer as an alternative.  So far you’d have to give the advantage to the righties, a delusion that can be quickly corrected by listening to them.

As I pointed out yesterday, the things the righties promise have all been done, ad nauseam, and proven repeatedly to be astoundingly stupid and ruinous, but still they tout them as though they were the best things since Vitameatavegamin.  Unless all of their candidates are as yummy as Scott and Sarah, a bunch of Reagan retread ideas, even perfumed with some fresh xenophobia and racism, isn’t exactly going to go over, even with the teabaggers.  The glorious and momentarily uplifting wars, after all these years, have proven to be a big, fat, waste, and worse, they aren’t even good for ratings anymore.  They’ve gotten boring.  If the righties don’t offer something, anything, to their voters except belt-tightening, wars, and tax cuts for the rich, they might even get beaten, by the Democrats, no less.

I wish Democrats understood this.  They wouldn’t have to run by demonizing Republicans if they did anything useful, but since they don’t, oughtn’t they demonize the Republicans, night and day?  After all, they’ve had ample opportunity to see that this strategy works quite well for the Republicans against them.   Alas, no.  Instead, they parrot righty memes and adopt the righty policies the memes support, and throw the game in the first inning. Perhaps the reason the gasbags admire the Republicans so is because if politics is reduced to the sports-like blather to which they routinely consign it, the righties are better players, despite their doughy appearance, and the Democrats are the last ones you’d want on your team.

For a time, they were right, too, as the Bush Administration “Let the Eagle Soar,” as it were.  But the relentless predictions of Republican resurgence the media has touted since 2005 hasn’t occurred yet, and none of its new heroes has ever exactly done anything unpopular.  Yet.  But they will soon, when they cravenly scuttle banking reform and wage pointless battles about extending the Bush tax cuts, bleat for more wars and environmental destruction, and start trying to slash “entitlements,” while the rich they fight for so ruthlessly have meanwhile become almost the only people who eat regularly in the country which they are always threatening to leave.  (see Knight, Phil…)

Call me crazy, but as lame as whatever it is the Dems are going to offer, it won’t be nearly as bad as what the righties come up with, and that problem will assuredly surface as we head into the fall, although it will come as a total surprise to David Gregory.  Even, and perhaps especially, in Televisionland you need to have a product to sell, and the Republicans don’t have it.  They have Liz Cheney and Glenn Beck’s chalkboards, and it goes downhill from there.  Good luck with that.

The Democrats deserve to lose, but I just don’t think the Republicans are going to let them.