This isn’t a scientific poll, but I think that there are a lot of angry people out there, particularly when the “stimulus” includes welfare and job retraining for millionaires, and Rasmussen reports that there aren’t very many people who approve the latest mortgage bailout. I know I’m one of them. Here’s an interview with the latter-day Samuel Adams (though I’m sure that there are many other Sons of Liberty, as there were then). I don’t really want to wait until July, though (though I understand that it’s kind of cold in Lake Michigan this time of year).
I think that there’s going to be a big backlash against this, and the polls would indicate it as well. As Jim Bennett notes:
The Ghost Shirt Democrats are doing their dance, but the vast herds of union-member Democrat-voting buffalo will never return to the plains, and [the] magic ghost shirts will not turn the ballots of angry voters into water [in] 2010 and 2012. Of course, the Republicans could still blow it, but even if they do, the Democrats have shown in a few short weeks that they have no idea how to govern the country, just to loot it. They will be replaced, if not by Republicans, then by somebody else.
We can only hope. And if the Republicans don’t get their act together, I hope that the answer is “somebody else.” I could use a real change, for the first time in my life, that results in less government, not more.
[Update a few minutes later]
Santelli/Kudlow 2010! (From comments)
We could do a lot worse, and always do.
[Update again a couple minutes later]
What are we going to demand? I haven’t really thought about it, but if we had the tea party today, I’d demand that Congress and the president rescind Porculus in toto, and come up with something that we are actually allowed to see and debate before anyone votes on it. Preferably in multiple bills, as the Founders intended.
[Update at 8 PM Pacific]
From my keyboard to their ears:
“I would like to say tonight that if the American people will let the Republicans back in charge, the 60% of this bill that won’t be spent until after the next election, we’ll cut it off and let it go to the Americans.”
Obviously, at this point, that’s the change that I’m waiting for. I might even vote Republican.
So far, we already know that in the rush to enact the porkulus bill, amendments that neither the President or Democrats that voted for it were part of the bill. This includes provisions to buy American, which is upsetting investor nations that we are hoping will buy our bonds to float this bill. And a provision to restrict new jobs to US citizens, so that business that work internationally will have difficulty bringing in employees to handle international operations.
Perhaps they should have tried at least 48 hours of debate?
Perhaps they should have tried at least 48 hours of debate?
Oh, don’t be silly. It was an emergency. Just ask that moron, Susan Collins.
Of course, the Republicans could still blow it,
The only real question is how creative can the Stupid Party be in “blowing it”. You couldn’t find better bunch of people who could turn victory into defeat. And when that time comes, I expect people like Collins and Specter and McDole to lead the way.
Even if the Republicans get voted back into power, they’ll rule from the position of weakness, just like they did before.
I think we need a new party. The current Republicans are done. They’re out of touch and they have linguini for spines.
If you want a new party you’re going to have to take over one of the existing ones. Election laws have been written by both parties to make it impossible for anyone not named Democratic or Republican to even get on the ballot.
Michael, can you give an example or two? I’d be surprised to hear of any law that specifies a political party by name.
Bob, I’d be surprised if you could be any more naive.
I agree that a new party may be the only way to go. The Democrats are of course a total lost cause, and it’s not clear the Republicans can rise to the challenge. It’s possible though; a new Gingrich could arise from this mess.
That being said, I think that one of the planks of this “new” party (whether within or outside the Republican establishment) needs to be some sort of mechanism of enforcing campaign promises. Newt was a good man, but look how quickly the Republicans fell off the wagon once they got to DC. It’s pathetic and disheartening.
Bob apparently doesn’t live in Oklahoma. Go to dustbury.com and ask about getting a minor-party candidate on the ballot in the Sooner State.
I have to say I was literally quite depressed when I heard the bill got passed. I think I need to look up that psychologist in Florida that helped people who were hopelessly depressed after Bush was elected the second time. In fact I’m curious as to whether that therapists are so eager to help people afflicted with ODS this time around.
Well that’s an idea. What would it take for conservatives to take over the democratic party? A huge number of people vote knee-jerk democrat and would never vote republican because of the media villainization. So why fight it? Have all the young republicans change their banners to young democrats, but continue to make their conservative case.
I’d love to see a conservative democrat beat Arlen.
Make Zell Miller the DNC chairman!
Keep Joe Leiberman as the token liberal.
Get Nancy Pelosi a blue suit.
But in reality, with a trillion in political pork they are going to stay in power long enough to bring back Carter’s malaise ten-fold. That money is going to go to more of the same thugs that got him elected this time around, but now they don’t need any further funding for generations.
It almost doesn’t matter what they do for the next four years. With this stimulus package passing, they’ve already won the money game.
I hate being so depressed.
Brock, Despite the prevailing culture, I wasn’t being snarky, I was being literal. I am genuinely wondering what Michael M. is talking about. I can’t believe political parties are referred to by name in law, but I can’t believe lots of things that actually do make into law, so I have an open mind. I suppose Michael was talking about else, and I can understand if it was shorthand for something too complicated to explain. Calling me naive might be fun for you (have at it!) but I still have no idea what you’re talking about. The Reform party managed to get on plenty of ballots, didn’t it? In Minnesota, the farmer-labor party had a good run, and even though it has now merged with the Democratic party, isn’t its name still on the ballot? (It is as if the Democratic party is the one that can’t get on the ballot!)
McGhee, thanks, but I’m not sure what to do at dustbury.com. It is nice that Rand tolerates me. I don’t want to intrude on some strange blog with an off-topic question.
Well, it was a toss-off reply anyway Bob. I’ve been reading dustbury for years and in each election cycle one can count on at least one mention of the fact that, legally, Oklahoma recognizes only the two major parties. Attempts to open that up happen every so often but never get anywhere.
For the record, I think opening up ballot access is a good thing — but the question of starting up a new party with any hope of cracking the dominance of the two majors doesn’t look all that appealing to me. I used to consider myself a Republican, and I’ll almost certainly continue to vote that way, but the only thing that salvaged me for the McCain ticket was his choice of running mate.
I was sure he was going to pick another career get-along Republican from D.C.
McGehee (named spelled right this time),
Thank you again. The Oklahoma Libertarian party’s webpage has more info. For example: http://www.oklp.org/ballot.html
I haven’t read it yet, but I thought I’d comment first to let you know I found more info.
It was his hail mary pass, and look at the grief it got him, however, it probably salvaged the thing from becoming a total rout. It must have also struck him, at some point, how much more popular she was than him, on the hustings.
So, in Oklahoma, you need many more signatures to get on the ballot than in any other state. It is appalling and unfair and it should be changed. But what this means is that a third party has to drum up support before the election, while the other parties only need to have support on election day. It doesn’t mean that only two parties are legally recognized. While my previous comment thanking McGehee is waiting for moderation approval (because it links to the libertarian party and the blog software can’t distinguish it from spam), I’ll just note that a coallition of the Oklahoma libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties run a website called okballotchoice dot org which has a collection of links which explain the situation in Oklahoma.
What are we going to demand?
Smash the state! All power to the soviets!
Oh, wait, that one’s been tried and failed.
Seriously, how about something like this:
1. One time only: every Congressman and Senator who can’t muster up at least a 25% approval rating from voters not in their district or state is disqualified from ever running for office again.
2. To be repeated yearly: every government agency that can’t pass a Big Three audit gets its budget and personnel cut by 10%.
3. No representation without taxation: by Constitutional amendment, if your 1040 doesn’t have a positive number at the end, you don’t get to vote.