I’ve stayed away from political postings for weeks now, but I’ve been struck of late at how pathetic the Right Wing has behaved recently. And how poorly they are doing in the eyes of the voters. Here’s my take:
1. I sure don’t love everything Barrack is doing, but he has inherited a mess and has one of the toughest situations that any President in our history has had to deal with from the outset of taking office. He is smart, he is effective and is an excellent communicator. He is working very, very hard. He is cool, calm and collected. He is one very impressive CEO.
2. Barack’s approval ratings are off the charts high, including those polls that are taken outside of this country. For the life of me I can’t understand why smart people who are Republicans are in such incredible denial that our stature in the world suffered miserably during the eight years under Bush, and that in a few short months, Barack has make huge strides in regaining what’s been frittered away. When Republicans travel abroad, don’t they get out and about and talk to people in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia? What do they think, that it doesn’t matter how the rest of the world views the United States? When I see the response that Barack gets when visiting the other countries of the world, I beam. It makes me proud of my country. To not feel that way is being a bit unpatriotic, I think.
3. I continue to be flabbergasted that people actually voted for Sarah Palin. Smart people voted for Sarah Palin! Or maybe we need to redefine ‘smart.’ We have all these incredibly complex problems in the world, and some people voted for Sarah Palin. For me, it’s just really hard to fathom. You read it here: there is no way Sarah Palin will ever become a major national player again. She just doesn’t have the smarts. She can rile up 10% of the population forever, but after that, then what?
4. Bobby Jindal. Michael Steele. John Boehner. Mitch McConnell. Dick Cheney. Karl Rove. The Republican Party. What do they have in common: they all have approval ratings LESS THAN 25%. Only 31% of voters now identify themselves as Republican. Guys, you have a HUGE problem - you have two camps that simply can’t and won’t get along - moderates who want to be more inclusive and far-righters, who want to exclude lots of people through their various positions on social issues – groups like Hispanics (immigration) and gays. And guess what - the number of white guys in this country are decreasing dramatically, and these guys are in complete denial. They herd and kvetch and fret that their capital gains rate will go from 35% to 39%, while the rest of the world is in turmoil.
5. Glenn Beck is scary. I thought Rush was scary. But then Sean came along. Now Beck has taken scary to a new level. Here’s the deal: these guys fire up an ever-shrinking base, big-time. I mean, it’s incendiary how much vitriol they spew. But moderates and independents look at this stuff and it freaks them out. It hardens their position that the Republican Party is full of a lot of fringe guys. And here’s the kicker: now that MSNBC is firmly entrenched as the counterpoint to FoxNews, the wealthy and moderate income Lefties willingly open up their wallets to take on the Right. Thanks to Howard Dean, David Plouffe, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow and others, the Left is now so much better organized. It’s a force to be reckoned with; totally different dynamic than even a couple of years ago, and it ain’t going away any time soon.
The plight of the Republican Party is all a little sad, but it actually makes me feel pretty good about the future, if you know what I mean.