Political Theatre category archive

Shaun Mullen finds a parable in a dog park.

Leonard Pitts, Jr.:

The Democrats had nothing to say and said it ineptly, running from the achievements of recent years — the Affordable Care Act, falling unemployment rates, a soaring stock market — and the president who presided over them like Usain Bolt from a house fire, defending themselves from Republican attack about as effectively as the Iraqi Army defends Iraq. Which is to say, not very.

The party presented no compelling argument for itself. It didn’t just lack the courage of its convictions; it also lacked its convictions.

The Republicans also had nothing to say, but they said it loudly and with great certitude: “Obama caused Ebola! Obama caused ISIS! Obama is going to give your job to an illegal! GOP: 2014!”

Now the leaders of both parties are spouting the usual cliches about finding ways to work together. And anyone who believes that will happen probably also believes singing an insurance company jingle will make your agent magically appear.

Read the rest.

The Gloomy Historian tries to parse the why the election turned out the way it did. A nugget:

Sometimes the question is posed as such; why are Democrats so good at governing and so lousy at campaigning, while Republicans are so good at campaigning and lousy at governing?

Follow the link for his theory.

In other shocking news, developers run this town.

Via Job’s Anger.

If you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, jump ahead to the 6:45 minute mark, where Cenk talks about the implications for scientific research.

Werner Herzog’s Bear spots the winner (emphasis added):

What about the people who didn’t vote? Not only do they outnumber the number of Republican and Democratic voters, they outnumbered all voters period. This means that yet again, the Didn’t Vote Party swept the midterms. It amazes me that elections which will determine all kinds of policy and will have a profound effect (especially on the state level) on so many people saw much fewer than half the voters show up.

Daniel Ruth:

It’s merely a guess, but the 2014 midterm mugging might well go down in electoral history as a great example of the politics of “Run away! Run away!” Rarely has a political party turned into a bigger gaggle of gutless poltroons than this assemblage of Democrats who spent the past few months trying to pretend: a) they really weren’t Democrats and/or b) they barely remembered the name of the president of the United States.

Follow the link for the rest.

Some of the comments in the clip get very strange.

I am not a partisan. I’m an activist, though not as active as I used to be. I support Democrats because they are the only feasible alternative to the vile and loathsome thing that Republicanism has become on its journey to becoming the Party of the New Secesh.

Those who beliee that a third party is the answer betray their ignorance of American history and the workings of American politics. Those who believe in some mystical “third way” between the two existing parties are, by and large, Republicans’ dupes, symps, and fellow-travelers made uncomfortable by the actions of their fellows and desiring to perfume the pig sty.

Nevertheless, I do recognize that, for the last 30 years, since the reign of Reagan, the Democratic party, with few exceptions, has run scared, peopled with gutless wonders unwilling to stand up for anything much.

The gutless are destined to lose. Let Shaun Mullen explain.

There is a bright side, I guess. I will stop getting a lot of stupid emails that have clogged my inbox for the past three months.

Addendum, Bright Side Dept.:

My email is down by at least 75%.

Not in Pennsylvania, there isn’t.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

I voted “in-person absentee” on Saturday. It’s a weird thing we have here in Virginia: There is no early voting, but, if you are eligible to vote absentee, you can vote early in person at designated locations as well as by mail (the first vote I cast was a mail-in absentee ballot for Shirley Chisholm). Since I’m working the polls in a precinct other than my own, I was eligible to vote “in-person absentee.”

The polling location was quiet and the poll-workers were nice. They told me that that voting had been steady; they had had about 25 voters by the time I arrived at 12:30 p. m. In idle conversation, I remarked to one that “My father taught me through example that voting is not a right; it is a duty. I can even remember my daddy paying his poll tax so he could vote.”

Some other voter over there said, “It’s a privilege.”

Clearly, she missed the bit about “poll tax.”

I said, “Indeed, there are some who are working to make it a privilege.”

Driving is a privilege. Voting is a duty.

Words fail me.

Warning: In worse taste than usual.

Juanita Jean points out the dialect of Libertarianism:

The problem with being a libertarian is that it is impossible to be ideologically pure and govern and (sic) the same time.

Follow the link for her example de jour.

Remember, a Libertarian is nothing more than a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.

Chris Honore marvels at the selfish mean-spiritedness that “conservatism” has become.

No excerpt or summary can do it justice. Just read it.