The Right is Terrified (And They Should Be)

The sound you hear is the Right shitting in their pants.

They can't believe what's happening. Not so long ago -- when this blog was begun, for example -- they seemed to have everything under control. The radical right had Congress in a headlock, and were looking towards (as one author put it) a Permanent Republican Majority.

Now everything they hoped for has come crashing down around them, and it very much looks like the Democrats will be in power, either in the White House or Congress or both, for the next 20 to 30 years.

That's what The Wall Street Journal is concerned about. In an opinion piece entitled "A Liberal Supermajority," they claim that:

If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.

I like the sound of that. Don't you? Certainly the Republicans liked it when they had control of the Congress. But now that the shoe appears to be slipping onto the other foot, all of a sudden this is something to be terrified of.

They continue:

Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on.

Here's where the facts stop and the bullshit posturing begins. You gotta admit, though, the term "unchecked left-wing ascendancy" sounds awfully good. Just like pie.

Let's take a look at the facts:

• When Roosevelt and the New Deal came into power with an overwhelming Democratic majority in 1933, the country was flat on its back. Roosevelt restored confidence and saved capitalism from itself and in the process created the FDIC (for which bank depositors are eternally grateful) and Social Security (which the Republicans have been trying to kill ever since its birth, in a sort of legislative late term abortion).
• When Lyndon Johnson had an overwhelming Democratic majority, he was able to push through any number of progressive legislation, including Medicare, on which so many senior citizens depend and which keeps them a hell of a lot healthier than they'd be without it.

I'd take unchecked left-wing ascendancy like that anyday. We should be so lucky.

Republicans, what's left of the radical right and The Wall Street Journal should all stop whining. They had the goverment for eight years -- and they totally fucked everything up. We've had untrammeled, deregulated laissez-faire capitalism at home and fuck-you-to-the-rest-of-the-world interventionism abroad. And it's all blown up in our face.

There's no way that the Democrats could possibly do worse than the Republicans have done over the past eight years.

Frankly, as I've said before in this blog, I don't expect a huge, New Deal-like wave of progressive legislation from the next Congress or from a potential President Obama. For one thing, he won't have the money. He'll be relegated to doing what Democrats have been relegated to doing for the past 30 years -- being the schmuck with the broom walking behind the elephant in the circus parade. They make a mess, we clean it up -- that's been the story of the past 30 years.

But whatever the Democrats do with the power they're almost sure to have after November 4th, I sure am looking forward to it.

Bring it on!