Been reading some serious political observers and bloggers lately. As expected, the number one topic -- well, after Michael Jackson and Lindsey Lohan -- is our president. Now six months into his term, surveys tell us most people like him, but not all his party policies (AKA, Harry Reid & Nancy Pelosi). Wait, that's only part of the plot...!
As far back as ancient Greece and Rome, the best way to challenge the power of the incumbent (besides the occasional nifty assassination) was to portray that power as being arrogant and used at your expense. About that same time, half way across the globe, the Chinese were mastering the same principle in what they called judo (leveraging the opponent's physical power against himself).
David Brooks recently nailed it when he wrote that once in power, the Republicans lost contact with the real America; now the Democrats are being tempted to do the same. Regardless of how true this may be, something is always true about the "loyal opposition" in America. If you can't come up with a better agenda, you go after the guy behind the other agenda. Make it personal, make it dirty, and make it stick!
Much as the Dems attacked Bush as an "inarticulate cowboy," the GOP has decided to attack Obama as an "over-reaching socialist." Actually the Republicans drew up this exact strategy way back in 1952 in case their guy Ike lost to the Democrat's "egghead socialist" Adlai Stevenson.
They've dusted off the old playbook, and with the daily assistance of Representative Boehner and cheerleaders like Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Beck, they're beginning to re-frame the image of the skinny guy as that of a power-hungry sophisticate trying to turn good capitalism into bad socialism (see Woodrow Wilson and FDR for details). Right or wrong -- I'm no one to judge -- their Stevenson Playbook is starting to show results.
Oh and don't forget the behind-the-scenes incantations from Sarah Palin. While she may never woe her party nomination, her party will surely woe her "real-America, small-town" catechism. One which has always found a responsive chord in the American psyche ever since Thomas Jefferson dreamed of an "America of gentle farmers."
Being a big-city guy myself with small-town intuitions, I'm dazzled by this play-action in Washington. My wish is that the players on both sides are playing with conviction not just ambition.
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While I too am amazed by all the "play action" that goes on in Washington, I could DEFINITELY do without CARIBOU BARBI who is a complete idiot, and John BONER who is the tannest man I know that in the middle of winter that lives in OH! :-)
ReplyDeletePeople like them should slip into quiet retirement! But hey, what do I know?
Washington, like every national capitol, is a hotbed of 24/7 politicking. Messy at times, but it's built into the system. In theory, what the Founding Fathers had in mind was a free- wheeling marketplace of ideas where the best ideas prevailed. Unfortunately that usually happens only in old Frank Capra movies. The most we can count on is that at least a few of the best ideas will survive every term. Some- thing is always better than nothing...
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