So the midterms are upon us (at last, you might say - let’s get the fucking things over with already), and as most predictions predict, the R’s are going to win, and win big. The reasons for this are several, you’ve heard them all, and they’re all true:
Every mid-term after a big Presidential win goes against him - this is historically inevitable. It doesn’t matter how favorably he was viewed two years before. They’ve decided that they hate him now.
We’re going through the worst financial clusterfuck in eighty years. Do you really think that the party in power, regardless of their role in bringing about the said CF, are going to survive intact?
Media is bigger and more in your face than in all of recorded history. If they are uniformly in line with the kick-the-bastards-out scenario being played out nightly, is there any chance that the Dems could survive the midterms?
Finally, if the biggest dog in the media pound, Fox News (still calling out the so-called mainstream media, when they themselves continue to be the biggest, most-watched outlet, and therefore the pure definition of mainstream) is beating the biggest drum, and the public, stripped of all critical thinking for decades now is listening to them for its daily “news”, is anything other than a Congressional takeover even thinkable?
Okay, I hear you saying that, certainly such a collection of genetically challenged candidates as those pushed forward by the GOP, especially the litmus tested Tea Party folk, cannot win. Surely, they are too batshit crazy for normal people to elect? Maybe. Prizes like Christine O’Donnell seem too far behind in the polls to succeed.
But she and the rest of her ilk (Miller, Angle, Paul, et al) hew to a strategy that seems at least possible to bring them victory. First, they make crazy, unverifiable statements about their opponent, or the President, or the direction of the country that are so insane that you just have to wait for them to say “just kidding”. Only they don’t They never say anything qualifying their lunatic position, and no one from the press ever calls them on it.
After their initial flurry of Just Plain Crazy, they decide to hide from the press entirely, except of course when Fox comes a-callin’. Every other media outlet is accused of trying to play “gotcha”, and is viewed as hostile. Fox, of course, plays along.
They engage in no debates, unless they are so far behind in the polls that they need to get on TV to say how they’re being misrepresented by their satan-worshiping opponent and unfairly beaten up by the mean old media.
Once in the debate, they never answer any real questions, but instead reply with a mini speech, which may (but probably won’t) have anything to do with the original query. Palin perfected this approach in her laughable debate with Joe Biden, even announcing beforehand that she intended to reply with her own answers and “not necessarily what they had asked her about”. Sadly, there are also some Democrats who employ this shameful method.
As long as things look good for them in the polls, you can expect to see no more of your Tea Party favorites than this. Of course, you’ll see plenty of them in ads - far more than you will of their opponents. I don’t need to go into why that is. You’ve read enough to know that their war chests are bloated with corporate (thanks, Supreme Court!) and foreign funds. And that gets me to the last reason why they will win on Nov. 2: Whoever spends the most wins. It’s general but true. The electorate - never really educated on the issues - will vote for whomever they’ve become the most familiar with.
