Victory or an Illustion?

Timothy Birdnow

Here is an intersting conversation on Facebook.

Lance Sjogren observes:

Madoc Pope observes:

A lot depends on how sustained the anger of the voting public is and how long term the thinking is of Democratic politicians.

Right now that anger is coming to a boil and is liable to get much worse as the economy continues to tank. Biden & crew are doing everything possible to make that worse.

If the folks running the Democratic Party do too much of their usual election theft attempts with the mid-terms then it'll likely devolve into a shooting war fairly quick. Making it clear that the mutually accepted ways of enacting change here in the US are no longer functional, that would make it clear that the disfranchised have nothing to lose by shooting their way out of the mess.

This is a hard thing to sell most people as the Democrats - and not few on the Right - neither see things as being this bad nor see how much they are putting at risk by continuing to defraud the voting the public.

If however, the vote is fair or fair enough and the will of the people is enacted then it will mean doom for the Democratic Party in its current form. The sea change after the midterms will take some time to form and then be felt. Really, it'll just lay the groundwork for the '24 election.

As it'll be a new generation of Republicans being elected - and it will be thus as they ones gaining office in '22 will be doing so for the first time as they oust Democrats and any RINOs in their way - I'd expect them to uphold their promises made to investigate and hold accountable the Democrats for their misdeeds. That, will be absolute 100 Octane for the fires of the '24 campaign.

Thus we're likely then to see an aggressive populist in office in '24 with the firm backing of even more populists in Congress controlling both houses.

This won't be like '16 in which the Republicans in Congress did whatever they could to oppose Trump. Whether it's Trump or some other Republican in '24 the newly seated Congress will have a mandate to go after the Democrats and what they wrought.

That is likely to gut to much of the Democratic Party's agenda that it'll start a cascade effect. That is, "if we've already gone this far then why not go all the way!!!" sort of thing when it comes to budget cuts, agency reductions, and so on. Aside from overall popular support for change, I'd also expect the economy in '24 / '25 to be pretty miserable and the overall world situation to be chaotic enough that such sweeping changes would indeed sweep through.

The infighting and factionalizatio

My response:

A very lucid and logical argument here Madoc. The only thing is I don't think it takes into account the power of the media to numb the sensibilities of the American People. The media is the leader, not the follower here. And they will take great pains to do what they do - obfuscate, mislead, misdirect, and create false controversy to hide their sins. I hope your view is correct but fear we may be in for yet more letdowns.

Lance Sjogren jumps in:

The media's power is declining rapidly as more Americans come to realize they have been lied to.

I respond:

But Lance Sjogren how many times have we seen this happen and somehow the public falls back into their slumber? I remember this during the Reagan years, during the Bush years, and at other points of "rebellion" against their lying and they bounce right back. Half the public still gets their news from the mainstream media. And all young people are told to believe the news media by their teachers (who also should have long ago lost credibility). I hope there really is a sea change but do not want to be fooled again. I'm from Missouri; you have to show me. I thought four years ago the public was finally awakening and they STILL voted for Biden (I know; a lot of those were stolen, but still it was close enough to steal this election.)

Madoc replies:

Thank you. The difference now, I think, is due to how systemic the recognition of the Left's failure has become.

Yes, the mainstream media is still quite skilled. But their market share has nose dived over the past several years. The whole Rogan thing is very much proof of that. CNN used to utterly dominate the news market. Now? One pot smoking dude with a podcast is crushing CNN in the ratings. It's not even close.

So, the power of the traditional gate keepers of information has waned considerably. Not ended, but they're far weaker than ever.

Combine that with the personal "lived truths" of tens of millions of Americans who have experienced and suffered the lies of the media and of the Left in general, and it's making for that political sea change.

Walter Russel Meade in his "End of the Blue Social Model" essays over on the American Interest site has observed that they trope of America being a "two party system" isn't entirely accurate. It's more like a "one and a half party system" where one major political party "gets it," in terms of being the most appealing to the American public, such that they dominate the political discourse and direction of the nation. The other party can but "nibble 'round the edges" of that agenda and direction and lacks the power to make significant changes to it.

He points to several systemic changes in American politics that flipped the relative parties in control. After the US Civil War it was the Republicans. Not that Democrats couldn't get elected, they most assuredly did, it's just that they never had the political depth to change the discourse and direction of the nation. After the Great Depression was the next such systemic change. Despite Ike, Nixon, and Reagan all being exceedingly popular and despite the GOP eventually achieving a trifecta of the White House, Senate and House, the Republican Party just didn't have the depth of national support to significantly change the Democratic Party's agenda nor the political course of the nation.

Meade pointed out the conditions in the 1920s that led to the American public's jumping to the Democrats and giving them the reins instead of the Republicans. Those conditions are extremely similar to what we're facing now.

The Republican Party of the 1920s had been the "go-to" party for "good governance" since the Civil War. But it had become thoroughly corrupt and ideological bankrupt at the same time. When the Depression hit it was perceived as being entirely unable to cope with the crisis. The Democrats, with FDR, at least were promising something different. And in that crisis that was enough.

Now the Democrats are in the role of that "go-to" party and have been in the tole for even longer. They too are thoroughly corrupt and ideologically bankrupt at the same time. When Meade first brought up this analysis he was figuring it would be debt problem that would finally push the Democrats out. That was over a decade ago. He did figure that the only reason the Democrats were still in the national political driver's seat was the fear and inertia involved. Fear of the unknown as to what would replace them and all the vested interests that had grown up with assuming the Democrats would be in charge and thus profiting from it.

Included in that was what the Republican Party had become. After decades of trying to rest control from the Democrats and failing no matter what, the politicians running the Republican Party adapted to their perpetual "Always Number 2" position. There's lots of benefits to never having to actually be in charge and run things. Especially when you've always lost when attempting to do so. So, the GOP came to be run by folks like McConnel and Romney and McCain, and the like. RINOS and "establishment"

I respond:

It's true the media is weaker, no question. But sadly the Left has coopted the new media as easily as they did the old. Social media censorship is evidence of that fact..

I fear we still face a huge uphill battle.

I completely agree; we have a party and a half. The GOP has been the Me Too party for decades, offering their alternatives to how do advance the Democrat agenda more efficiently, rather than offering a true vision. How do you even stop them when you have no champion to sit athwart history and say no?

I will say this about the analogy about the Republicans and the Depression; it was the first time the media really, truly exercised power over the American mind. Before that - during the period of Yellow Journalism - it could influence. But a majority of people did not even know FDR was in a wheelchair, for crying out loud! The media created an alternate reality at this point.

Now with computers and modern technology they can simply erase what is absolutely obvious. How many people even remember the endless attacks on Trump? If you ask most people they think Ronald Reagan was beloved by the media (completely forgetting the hatred he endured.) Ditto both Bush's. .I fear the media still has a lot of tricks up their sleeve.

And the Joe Rogan thing shows the public years for the truth but look what happened to him. I rather doubt he'll keep doing what he did after the Borking he received. Watch for him to pull in his horns.

That is the power of the media still.

I think Meade didn't understand that there is a ruling class of the very wealthy and powerful who just aren't going away. They are the ones funding the Democrats. Look at how much money Zuckerberg poured into this last election. And of course the Democrats control taxpayer dollars, and every stinking "stimulus" or works project they have promoted have been slush funds to feed their cash back to the DNC.

So massive amounts of money are available to the Democrats and that flow will continue. That money buys more media time. The media is in the tank for the Democrats too. It's little wonder we are in this boat; they have sewn the whole thing up at this point.

I think Meade's mistake is assuming this is traditional politics. It isn't. It's internationalism and big government as a religion.

I couldn't agree more; Republicans think like also-rans. They are happy not having to lead, not taking risks, enjoying the privilege and prestige and money of being in the political class but not exercising power. It's why they hated Reagan when he came, and why they hated Trump; both did not accept the easy status quo.

While I agree many populists will win, the GOP, with the help of the media, will highlight every time a Trumpian loses to promote the notion that we must return to the old types of candidates "who can win". They will ignore the populist victors. They will smear them. The GOP will probably even pull some dirty tricks on them (as they did with any number of outsider candidates whom Mitch McConnell didn't like.) In the end the media will make it appear the RINO class had the solution but was upended by the insurgents. We've seen them do this in previous years.

I hope I'm wrong here and you are right. You make a good case. I just have learned from a lifetime of disappointments with the Republicans to assume they will snatch defeat from the jaws of victoy. They seem quite good at that.


We live in a world governed now by illusion. I think i f the public were to get the facts they would throw the Democrats out but they are always lulled by the siren's song from the media. Americans are numb. I think the fact that Biden was able to win the election (well, he stole it but that's for another day) and the Democrats kept control of the House and actually won the Senate is proof we are in for a tough fight even if the Republicans win.

The GOP, by the way, doesn't want to blow them out. That would make it hard for them to have something to run on in the next election, and they would have to actually do something in this Congressional term.


Cheers!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:47 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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