As I noted in my most recent post, President Obama and his administration continue on a political path of self-immolation. I have stopped trying to figure out why there are doing this. It defies, after all, reason, history and good sense. The political consequences of this path are simple. It leads to defeat. A huge defeat this November in the mid-term elections, and then an even bigger defeat two years later in the presidential election.
As I previously suggested, Democratic elected officials at all levels, but particularly this year at congressional and statewide levels, will tolerate this only so long. As their poll numbers dip to unrecoverable levels, and they become premature lame ducks, anxiety will become panic. To lose an election in an off-year is not without precedent, and end-of-the-first-term presidential dips in popularity are the rule not the exception, but to throw away huge majorities in both house of Congress, and to demolish the recently revived brand of the Democratic Party in less than two years, is politically unforgiveable when it is done incompetently and for no visible reason.
As long as the bulk of the old media pretended that Mr. Obama was doing an acceptable job as president, and the Congress was fulfilling the will of the people, this administration had some cover and, combined with the majority of Americans unwilling at first to admit to themselves they had made a grievous mistake in 2008, Democrats went along and continued to rationalize that everything was o.k.
Now even the old media is increasingly skeptical and critical of Mr. Obama, his cabinet, his foreign policy and his domestic legislative agenda. Once a huge draw for Democratic candidates and a dependable fundraiser for them, Mr Obama is now seemingly only welcome in inner cities where his radical brand of liberalism retains popularity. Independent voters have begun to abandon Mr. Obama big time, and suburban middle class and rural voters are following close behind.
Mr. Obama now faces two simple choices. He can continue on his current path, e.g.., sue Arizona over immigration, bail out and take over U.S. industry, press on for unfunded healthcare reform, insult and turn away from our historical allies while pandering to our enemies in the world, etc. or he can change course to a path that would be at least understandable if not more acceptable to the voting public.
Actually, he has only the latter choice. The former choice will, at some point in the near future, lead to an open revolt in his own party. I do not know if this would happen before or after the November elections. I suspect it will happen after they occur, when there is not even an iota of ambiguity about what he has done to his own party.
A political revolt will then occur in the Democratic Party, the like of which we have not seen since the 19th century. A small version this almost happened in 1980 when Jimmy Carter faced double digit inflation and interest rates, and a hostage crisis in Iran. That intraparty effort failed, although Carter went on to an historic defeat in November that ushered in a new conservative era in U.S. politics.
Mr. Obama is also trying to expand the public sector of the economy, and to increase federal governmental intrusion into questions of privacy, clear constitutional rights of the states, and even areas where government has not ever had, nor should not have, any business. Even welfare state Europe, facing the same crises we face, has turned its back on this kind of neo-Marxism, and is cutting its bloated public sectors.
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