Wednesday, September 13, 2006

What if they threw an election....

that nobody wanted to win?

Is there any precedent for an election in which prominent members of each party are saying that the best thing to happen would be for their own party to get drubbed?

I guess there's a couple reasons for this:

  • Whatever happens in the Congressional elections, Bush will be in the White House, and thus it's in everybody's interest to distance themselves as much as possible from whatever other debacles will occur.
  • This is what passes for "long term" thinking nowadays. We don't think about using the next two years to enact policies that could, you know, help people, which is what government ought to be about. No, it's about positioning for the next election.
  • With the powers Bush has claimed for the executive branch, there's not much for Congress to do anyway, so Congress doesn't matter that much.
  • Nobody really likes the Congressional leaders (Hastert, Fritz, Pelosi, Reid), and aren't too excited about them maintaining or gaining power.
  • Premature sour grapes from the GOP? They know they're going to lose, so they're spinning it as if they didn't want to win anyway.


Anyway, it sure seems to be an odd moment in history, and I don't think it's a good sign.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I suspect that someone in the GOP knew it had to come to this. No one of any sense could nor would believe that this sort of government and the means to power it employs could ever be sustainable in the long term.