Advancing the progressive agenda

Almost two years ago, high on the Democratic sweep of the 08 elections, a whole lot of people pronounced the GOP dead for generations to come. I wasn't one of them. I've been around since Eisenhower was President. I remembered the average voters have very short memories. The pendulum always swings and I was pretty sure Obama wasn't going to be the Messiah of progressive politics and that the Democrats would disappoint us with the same old kabuki.

So now we're only a couple of weeks away from the midterms and sadly, via Rising Hegemon, we're at a place that Rude Pundit describes all too well.

You can't unfuck something that you've fucked. Republicans have paid almost no long-term price for the Caligula-like madness of the Bush administration. There's a chance that, now, two-years later, they're gonna get rewarded for refusing to participate in running the country. It's like setting free an arsonist after you've started to rebuild the house and telling him, "Oh, and here's those matches we took from you. Sorry for the inconvenience."

We can rightly blame the media for uncritically broadcasting completely false GOP narratives. We can blame Congressional Democrats for their ineffectual response to the GOP's relentless obstructionism. We can blame Obama for not using his bully pulpit to push a progressive agenda. But in the end, within the context of the recent Reid/Angle debate, Lance Mannion nails what's driving the GOP resurgence.

But Angle doesn’t have to explain. She doesn’t have to explain anything. All she has to do is show her potential voters she’s as incoherently angry at everything and everybody they hate as they are. This is the year of Republican Revenge and all they want is to bring the temple crashing down around their ears in order to enjoy the sight of their enemies being crushed in the rubble. That anger is what’s bringing them out to vote.

And John Ballard at Newshoggers finds the flaw in the progressives' response.

Innocent viewers who just came from Sunday School, knowing none of the back story about this woman, will have nothing but a positive reaction to what she says. Never mind that along with Beck, Palin and the rest of the crowd she is blowing smoke. Just because the words are as devoid of content as cotton candy it is a mistake to mock and point at those who buy them. There is a market for cotton candy, too, you know.

Far too large a market in this election. The irrationally angry right doesn't care about facts. They won't believe anything that contradicts their world view, even if it came down on graven tablets from heaven. Mocking them may be good sport for the left but it doesn't advance progressive policy. Neither did it stop the tea party types from winning a lot of major primaries.

Look around. How many Congressional primary wins can progressives point to? It comes down to this, if the "teatards" are so stupid, why are they winning?

[Big thanks to DougJ at Balloon Juice for the link.]

[Adding hugethanks to Batocchio at Crooks & Liars, who's sitting in for Mike at the Blog Roundup and to Think Progress for the links.]