I like Mary Katherine Ham as a writer and a person, but that didn’t stop me from rolling my eyes when I saw this video in which she ascribed the Republican “thumping” in the last election to fiscal policy.
It’s the war, stupid! (No, Mary, I don’t think you’re stupid in the slightest bit. Just parodying the old line here).
The reason the Republicans lost the election was Iraq – pure and simple. The war has not been going well and the Democrats and their media allies were able to exploit that to the hilt. Bush – whatever his pluses and minuses – has rarely been a terrific defender of his war policy, so that simply exacerbated the situation.
As for fiscal policy, whatever their complaints with a free-spending Bush administration, I can’t believe in the end very many Republicans switched over to the Democratic side (of all people) because of it.
Until the War on Terror is over (and that doesn’t seem like soon) it will dominate our thoughts and our votes far more than anything. The rest will be a sideshow. And it should be.
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16 Comments
1. doc99:Roger,
Where’s today’s Frank Capra? Wait … You’re a Screenwriter … Care to have a go?
Cheers!
Jan 18, 2007 - 12:15 pm 2. Godzilla:Although no one really knows this but me, but when I start thinking that this war will not succeed on its present course, then you can bet that a majority of people are beginning to head for the beached ships, onward to Pythia! Sorry, Agammemnon. Still, I’m amenable to the rousing words of an Odyyseus, but Patton is dead, and reality is manifesting itself quite brutally.
If the shites and sunni want to have a civil war, the only way we can stop it is to pick a side, and I wouldn’t cast my lot with either one.
This is a mess, however, and it also wouldn’t be quite right for us to just leave.
Some people actually do need tryants to keep the savages from killing each other. Puts Plato’s Republic in a better light.
Jan 18, 2007 - 12:48 pm 3. Terrye:Iraq did not help, but I don’t think it was the only thing. I think the refusal of Congressional Republicans to compromise on certain issues like immigration added to the perception of many that they were arrogant. I think people were just ready for a change…. if they will be happy with what they got however, remains to be seen.
Jan 18, 2007 - 1:06 pm 4. Lem:We have not been attacked at home again for over 5 years. (knock on wood)
Apparently that bar is too low.
Instead we move up an imaginary doomsday clock on account of a “warming” that’s giving us frozen orange juice.
Go figure.
Jan 18, 2007 - 1:36 pm 5. dclydew:If it had only been the war, I wouldn’t have voted Democrat. I don’t like Democrats, but I don’t like the BS that Republicans have pulled for the past 5 years. War doesn’t mean that its ok to ignore the other, and in my mind more important issues, that have to do with running our Republic.
1. Government should be a controlled entity with specific areas of responsibility. Terri Schaivo was not in that area of responsibility. Fighting with States where voters OK’d medical marijuana was not in that area of responsibility.
2. Government should be fiscally responsible. The Bush administration has not been responsible and Congress did nothing to deal with it.
3. Corruption. Its always bad… so cleaning hose is often necessary.
4. Civil Rights do occasionally need to be worked around in a time of war. However, those in power simply allowed the Administration full power over what was and wasn’t tolerated. Congress should always be keeping a check on the executive… the Congress that lost had failed to do this.
5. Alliance with extremes. If people want to be Christian or Muslim or Jewis or religious in general, thats fine. If they want to vote based on their religious beliefs, thats ok too… but a political party should try to remain outside of metaphysical debate. The republicans in power failed to do that.
And to top it all off, they, like Bush confused communicating with the American people and simply spinning.
They deserved to lose, they deserved it for many reasons. Hopefully a more conservative, less BS Republican party will emerge in ‘08 and I can vote for them.
Jan 18, 2007 - 1:38 pm 6. Lem:Spoken like a moderate – “I rather loose standing on principle.”
Principles, to the extent that people avibe by the them, are derived from the choices of majorities. In a way, loosing is a loss of principal.
Lord help me, I can’t grasp that kind of talk.
Jan 18, 2007 - 2:04 pm 7. Doug S.:I disagree a bit with Roger on this one. Although the war (or shall we say, misperception about how the war is going) was undoubtedly a big issue, I think Mary Katherine Ham is onto something. From reading other blogs and talking with friends, I think there was enough disillusion among the Republican base to make a dent. Take the Porkbusters thing featured on Instapundit from time to time; I sense that it was a rallying point for small-government Republicans as disgusted at their own party as at the Dems.
A good friend of mine is one of that rare breed, a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who works in show business (though he’s not an actor, or an established writer, like Roger). He surprised me over the summer by declaring outright that he hoped for a Democrat congress because gridlock was preferable to the current state of affairs. He’s a small-government, somewhat libertarian conservative, and he was ticked off about government bloat. I was surprised that he considered that a more important issue than the war (and I tend to agree that the war *should* be the more important issue), but there it is.
Jan 18, 2007 - 2:54 pm 8. Terrye:dcl:
How anyone talking about fiscal responsibility could vote for the Democrats is a mystery to me. First Social Security is a crisis, then it isn’t, then it is. First they complain about spending too much money and then they want to nationalize health care…the cost, don’t worry, the sky is the limit.
And civil rights? Name on instance in which someone’s civil rights were actually infringed upon by the Bush administration. I do not mean some bs propaganda…but an honest to God example that does not include some homicidal terrorist behind bars where he damn well belongs. Sheesh, for some people it will always be 1969.
As for the metaphysical debate, I do not even know what that means. I think it means that if Democrats want to feed us a line of crap about what good mommies and Christians they are we are supposed to be impressed, but if some nasty old Republican happens to admit he prays for strength in times of trial that is just over the top.
Fox has a poll out which states that 51% of the Democrats questioned wanted us to win in Iraq. 34% did not and the remaining 15% were not sure.
That is why I left the Democratic Party, they are hypocrites. And I do question the patriotism of that 49%.
Jan 18, 2007 - 5:00 pm 9. Terrye:Doug:
I have noticed something working in health care, no one thinks it is bloat when they are the recepient. I think most people talk about small goverment but that means cutting something someone else needs or wants, not them.
The truth is more people are interested in effective government than small government. However, they do resent waste. The problem is that they can not decide what waste is.
Jan 18, 2007 - 5:03 pm 10. Doug S.:All very true, Terrye! My justifiable benefit is someone else’s pork fat, and vice versa. Mind you, I’m not agreeing with my friend’s line of thinking; just saying I think enough people thought that way to make a difference.
Jan 18, 2007 - 5:58 pm 11. Luther McLeod:The war was it for me. I did once take six weeks of unemployment money, I was young. I rue my decision to do so, to this day. I would take that long cold walk in the snow before ever thinking that ‘the’, ‘any’ government owed me a goddamn thing. Protect this country, the greatest hope the world has had so far, and certainly the only (with our western civ allies) bulwark between freedom and subjugation.
Jan 18, 2007 - 6:52 pm 12. waterdragon52:Roger:
Was it about the way the war is going or about the way it is being reported?
I’m not going to pretend that it’s going well, or that serious errors in judgment have not been made, but the support for the war was pretty qualified from the outset, with plenty of dire predictions of a Viet Nam quagmire. I’m not a Ralph Peters fan, but he may be showing a great deal of insight by suggesting that Iraq is, in fact, Al Qaeda’s quagmire as the Sunni Islamists cannot hope to control Iraq’s Shia majority nor can they afford to retreat from Iraq either. And back in Afghanistan and Somalia, A-Q’s soul Taliban and Islamic Courts Union soul mates aren’t exactly on top of things either.
Jan 19, 2007 - 5:27 am 13. Charlie (Colorado):If it had only been the war, I wouldn’t have voted Democrat. I don’t like Democrats, but I don’t like the BS that Republicans have pulled for the past 5 years. War doesn’t mean that its ok to ignore the other, and in my mind more important issues, that have to do with running our Republic.
I’m sorry, but you’ve just revealed yourself a damned fool.
Jan 19, 2007 - 12:23 pm 14. Mark Poling:I don’t know, Roger. Yes, the Iraq story was huge, but the last election was about Congress, America was fed up with Congress, and Republicans had (rightfully) become the party of Congress.
A big percentage of the Dems who won did so as hawks. I don’t think that should be forgotten.
Jan 20, 2007 - 1:04 am 15. Richard Aubrey:Mary Kate may be right, if we switch “voted for dems” to “stayed home”.
Small-government conservatives/republicans were disgusted. Those wishing a substantially more vigorous prosecution of the war were disgusted. Those concerned with immigration issues were disgusted.
There are a lot of folks in each category. I don’t see them voting dem–too much class–but I do see them refusing to vote repub.
Between the three groups, the stay-at-homes could have made the difference.
Jan 22, 2007 - 8:32 am 16. dclydew:dcl:
How anyone talking about fiscal responsibility could vote for the Democrats is a mystery to me.
Simple. Because with a small majority, they’ll be able to gridlock congress until the Big Government Neo-Cons are ousted (please Dear God!) in ‘08. They won’t fix anything, but they will probably put some brakes on the insane spending spree the Republicans have been riding for the past 6 years or so.
And civil rights? Name on instance in which someone’s civil rights were actually infringed upon by the Bush administration.
Any American citizen who was listened to or imprisoned without charges. Civil rights don’t just apply to the good Americans, they apply to all Americans or this whole country is simply a hypocritical joke.
I do not mean some bs propaganda…but an honest to God example that does not include some homicidal terrorist behind bars where he damn well belongs. Sheesh, for some people it will always be 1969.
That’s a scary comment.
As for the metaphysical debate, I do not even know what that means. I think it means that if Democrats want to feed us a line of crap about what good mommies and Christians they are we are supposed to be impressed, but if some nasty old Republican happens to admit he prays for strength in times of trial that is just over the top.
I don’t think I’ve ever given that impression and I’m rather surprised that you would stoop to such strawman BS. Metaphyiscs, when is a life a life, should we teach ID in school, when is brain dead not really dead… That’s metaphysics. If its not something that we can prove in some real sense, then government shoudn’t be involved. Not in stem cells, not in abortion, not in life support nor in the ID versus evolution debate. I don’t care who believes what about the afterlife, the spirit realm or their own consciousness. I do care when they try to implement these half-baked myths as law in this nation.
Fox has a poll out which states that 51% of the Democrats questioned wanted us to win in Iraq. 34% did not and the remaining 15% were not sure.
That is why I left the Democratic Party, they are hypocrites. And I do question the patriotism of that 49%.
I have no idea what that poll is supposed to tell us. I have no idea what question was asked, nor how the poll was conducted. Beyond that, I don’t think its an issue of being patriotic if one disagrees with a war undertaken by their country. That’s the point of a free nation. We’re free to disagree, even on matters of patriotism.
What does it mean to win in Iraq? How will we win? When will we know we won? Now, 5 years from now? Or when all of the fallout is realized 20 years from now? If you base your political affiliation on polls ans statistics, then I would remind you that Mark Twain once said something very wise:
There are three kinds of lies. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
Believe me, it hurts me to have to consider that the Democrats are currently less of a threat to this nations future than the other options. But after the Republicans performance over the past 12 years (and more importantly with Bush), I couldn’t, in good conscience vote for more of that warped ideologically driven agenda.
Jan 22, 2007 - 9:21 am