Looks like the Stupid Party is preparing to make Obama a hero this fall. The hilarious part of it is they will not just make Obama look like Lincoln they will end up giving the store away at the end. It is a familiar story. The Stupid Party looks around and sees that their base is wandering off in disgust. They think the way to get them back is to pick a pointless fight with the other guys over the budget. They will make a bunch of noises intense to get “their side” ready for battle. A handful of Congressmen who really want to reign in the blob will be front and center making their case. The press will play it cool for a while hoping for a shutdown. Then they will pile on the hapless Stupid Party like convicts on a new inmate. After a week of beatings, Boehner will cave and give the White House a blank check. Conservative Inc will chatter on about about the need to get more Stupid Party members in Congress and win back the White House for the SP’s.
I’ve been reading a lot of European history of late. One thing that always strikes me is how the nobles were able to set themselves up in power and maintain that power. They were clearly better educated and probably in the top tier of IQ for their respective populations. There were some blockheads springing from the royal loins, but they self-policed. If the next in line was an idiot, he often “fell ill” in his youth and never made it to adulthood. Democracies work the same way, just without the inherited positions. Even the children of pols have to stand for election. That’s the self-policing. The retarded Kennedy can be placed in a safe Congressional seat, but he is never running for president. The smart ones are groomed for bigger things.
What explains the Stupid Party?
I have not had time to think this through, but sense is the parties have changed since the 1980’s. The “new” economy born out of the Louvre Accords allowed the ruling class of America to sever itself from the middle class entirely. From the 1930’s through the 1980’s, the Democrat party was the home of cultural elites and the working and middle classes. The GOP was the home of the business and financial classes along with upper middle and some middle classes. If you owned a body shop were inclined to vote Republican, while if you worked at the body shop you voted Democrat. There was plenty of overlap, but that was the general breakdown. Then the world changed as the money changed in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The political alignment quickly followed.
Today, the Democrats are the ruling class party. They are the Cavaliers. The jealously guard the interests and prerogatives of the state and the elites. There’s a reason we have gone through three major financial crisis and no one has gone to jail. There’s a reason why Wall Street gives 2-to-1 to Democrats. On the other side, the GOP has become the home of the working and middle classes. They still have plenty of upper class businessmen who run the Chamber of Commerce, but those are folks decidedly not in the elite. That body shop owner is now solidly Republican, but so are most of his employees. Government, Gays, Guns and God is what unites the working class whites of the GOP with the middle class whites. The GOP is now the Roundheads, except they lack anyone with the skill and self-awareness of Oliver Cromwell.
The Stupid Party not only has an IQ deficit, they also have another problem. They don’t get it. They look at the fight as just one group of loyal Americans against another group of loyal Americans. They think they can have honest dealings with the other side. In reality, the other side wants them dead. We are in a cold civil war and the establishment elites are playing to win. They are not interested in compromise. The result is the Stupid Party shows up to every gun fight with their hat in hand, hoping to appeal to the other side’s patriotism, good sense and good will. It is never a fair fight.
History says, however, that the Roundheads eventually figure it out. That’s when it will get interesting.