Newt Gingrich's s-pac manservant Rick Tyler broods that in the expansive wasteland of Mitt Romney's total war and scorched-earth campaigns, "there will be no one left to vote against Barack Obama." And Newt Gingrich's manservant may not be far from the truth.
Look at it this way: X.
Which is to say, political psychologists have long agreed that negative advertising's collateral damage, in any general election season, lies in the alienation of independent voters, while in primary seasons its chief aim is to drive all but friendly partisans within the broader partisan camp of party into despair, indifference, and dormancy. This, the GOP's presidential candidates have accomplished admirably: out of Maine's more than 1.3 million residents, for example, scarcely 6,000, or 0.4 percent, bothered with civic duty.
Republican genocide is taking a prodigious toll, and one must ponder its lasting effect. For about a quarter-year now we've witnessed massive air campaigns of charges and countercharges of malfeasance, fiscal recklessness, "serial hypocrisy" and "corporate raiding" and "blood money" -- the war portends no delimitation, only escalation. When, however, this civil war officially concludes, and two-party belligerency commences, one easily envisions Republican enthusiasm as the top-left-to-bottom-right line in an 'X' graph. That is, there will be casualties and durable animosities lingering within the GOP base, which should materialize in lower turnout.
Meanwhile, though, Barack Obama will possess an unmolested, essentially unified and motivated base, translating into the 'X's' bottom-left-to-upper-right line. In other words, the scourge of polarization could actually work to Obama's advantage; or, put another way, the independent vote may prove to be of lesser importance in 2012 than in preceding elections.
With Obama and Mr. X (but probably Romney) blasting away at each other with martial abandon, independents will doubtless experience the selfsame despair the GOP base is now experiencing. In brief, independents could likely stay at home, which would cut into Obama's numbers. Yet while Obama has a unified and (given Obama's stump skills) energized base to work with, the disaffected, demoralized and despairing GOP base -- see Tyler, above: "there will be no one left to vote against Barack Obama" -- could likely stay home as well.
Thus the rough and enduring equilibrium of this nation's left and right camps could be thrown into a vast disequilibrium on the only day that will matter: November 6.
It is interesting to watch GOP candidates deploy tactics against other GOP candidates that have been habitually used against Democrats, and thus spawning an Nasty-Bombs arms race.
And this harms us liberals/progressives/Democrats. We need a healthy conservative (little "c") intellectual opposition to test our ideas.
As best as I can understand it, the fundamental criterion for representing the GOP in this election is, "Who is the most doctrinaire person to hate Obama the most?".
Seriously.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | February 21, 2012 at 10:47 AM
While I agree that it's fun watching the GOP self destruct over the past many months, I don't hold the same optimism that it will disenfranchise independents as much as we'd hope it would. IN fact, my fear, which is shared by many others and even put into an eloquent pice by David Sirota over at Salon is that this constant airing of radical rightwing ideology is actually desensitizing the mainstream to what would have been thought of as insane ideas. Much like torture, erosion of privacy and many other once taboo topics are considered "normal" due to the constant airing of "pro-X" voices.
Here's Sirota's piece for you to read if you're interested in reading a good take on this issue:
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/22/the_danger_of_an_endless_gop_primary/
Posted by: Stupid Git | February 24, 2012 at 08:48 AM
Obama hasn't led a chremad life. It is more insideous and more diabolical than that. I suspect that, at an early age, he was carefully selected and groomed by people like Axelrod and Soros and others of their ilk to attain positions which he has held in his career, with all obstacles swept aside by his handlers to ensure that their puppet, Obama, would rise to where he is today without any interference or hinderances or scandals. His handlers are a secret consortium of hardline, [extremely] liberal, immoral and unscrupulous socialists, including, among others, a network of insane academics, another network of insane attorneys and judges, and a netwok of insane prominent businessmen, all of whom are so insane that they will cut off their noses to spite their faces. In fact, there can no longer be any doubt that liberalism is, indeed, a mental illness. And just think; as you read this, they are grooming others like Obama, who are waiting patiently and biding their time out there in the wings. The Communists have shown us that they have infinite patience and that nobody can exploit a crisis to advance their evil agenda like they can.Have you ever listened to prominent Democrats, I mean really, really listened to them and analyzed their comments? They aren't just insane. They are certifiable. Take Nancy Pelosi for example. She is nuttier than a squirrel turd.Reply
Posted by: Tony | February 29, 2012 at 10:05 AM