Right Wing Nation

One of the advantages of living in what I call a Matalin-Carville household is that you know what the Democrats are doing it when they’re doing it, instead of finding out when it’s too late. Long before the last election, I knew there was likely to be a bloodbath, only because the phone rang off the hook for months before the election, and all of the calls were from Democrats who wanted money for their candidates. In the six months before the last election, we received hundreds of calls, and perhaps five (at the most) were from Republicans.

Guess what? It’s happening again. The phone is ringing off the hook, and every call is from the Democrats. I’ve had one call from the Republicans (our primary is coming up in less than two weeks) for a judicial candidate. That’s it.

The problem, both leading up to the last election and from what I’ve seen so far now, is the Ostrich Syndrome. Nearly everybody in the dextrosphere (and apparently, the GOP) has his head buried in the sand, exactly like everybody did leading up to the last election. Republicans up for re-election didn’t take it seriously until it was too late. Ed Rendell started campaigning months before Lynn Swann, and the Democrats were working their butts off to elect Casey long before Santorum started campaigning. And it has started all over again.

The Ostrich Syndrome plays out in two major ways right now. First, while we obsess over the Presidential nomination and practically ignore Congressional seats, Democrats aren’t calling and calling and calling for their Presidential candidates. They’re calling for Congressional candidates. And you know why? Because they’ve got sense, and we don’t.

I’m going to say this slowly and clearly. It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference how the Presidential candidate feels about abortion, because the President has no power to make law. All of this arguing over conservative litmus tests is sheer idiocy. That’s right. Idiocy. The President’s stances on national defense, the military, foreign policy, and judicial appointments are crucial, because these are all part of Executive powers, while abortion is not.

Given the candidates who are (so far) running, I don’t give a damn who gets the Presidential nomination. On the relevant issues, all of them are on pretty much the same page. There are candidates I like better than others, but whoever is nominated will get my vote.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t discuss or debate Presidential candidates. I am saying we shouldn’t do so as we ignore Congressional races. If anything, we should place a higher priority on Congressional races, because Congress has a greater potential to affect the nation.

Let me wake you up and tell you what the Democrats have been doing for months now. They’re raising money for Congressional candidates. We got the first of many calls for Al Franken only weeks after the last election. The Democrats have targeted Mitch McConnell, and make no mistake, unless the Republicans start working as hard as the Democrats, he will go down. And not just Mitch. If people don’t take their heads out of the sand, we’re going to get a larger Democrat majority in Congress on top of a Democrat in the White House.

Hillary creeps me out as much as anyone, but given the choice of a razor-thin Democrat majority or a Republican Congress and Hillary on one hand or a larger Democrat majority Congress and Hillary–or even one of the Republicans–on the other, I’ll take the former. Hillary (or Obama or whoever) can’t do much damage without enough Democrats in Congress to render us powerless, and a Republican White House with a Democrat-controlled Congress can’t do much. No matter who is in the White House, a strong Democrat majority in Congress can do a great deal of damage–and they will.

As ironic as it may seem, we’re living in a fantasy land and the Democrats are dealing with reality. While we waste time bickering about which Presidential candidate is the
“true conservative,” the Democrats are getting their Congressional candidates set up to win seats. Sadly, I imagine we’ll continue to piss and moan and whine and fight about Presidential candidates, not to mention issues that were dead when they first came up, like immigration and a gay marriage amendment, and ask ourselves what happened when we end up with a large Democrat majority Congress and a Democrat White House next November.

And I will say I told you so.