Monday, June 08, 2009
My 0.02$ on the EP Elections
(1) the victory of the center-right is not nearly so big as the media's been playing it up to be, but the "even the liberal media says even the Euro-weenies are moving toward the right" is gonna be a big talking point in the 2010 midterms
(2) the center-right in Europe is not the same as our center right (as the liberal blogs have been reporting in what should be our talking point to neutralize the above talking point): the Christian Democratic movement, from its very origins, is more akin to our Bull-moose movement that died out with TR going back to the GOP and which otherwise has largely been absorbed into the Democratic party (as has the McKinley GOP, FWIW, c.f. Atrios' comments about the elites as well as M. Lind's comments about McKinley's GOP being now part and parcel of the Democratic party in Made in Texas).
(3) The larger point, however, is that this does point, however, to the difficulties our side will face in the 2010 midterms. Any lack of economic progress will be used against the Dems. Let's not think that 2006 and 2008 mean the GOP era is over. The Dems still have not addressed the underlying causes of the "Reagan backlash". Archie Bunker-ism still is a potent force because nowadays even a young person like me can say "things were so much better in the olden days -- when my dad was my age, he could afford to live in a nice house in the 'burbs on just his salary ... now with my wife out of work -- even with my roughly equivalent salary -- it's tough to make ends meet". As long as people think things were better off in the "good old days", they are, by definition, oriented toward conservative/reactionary thinking. Moreover, Obama and the national Dems have as yet done little to address major beefs with "gummint" (anyway his powers are limited as most of these beefs deal with state/local government, as I've frequently discussed on this blog ... although Obama can put strings on the stimulus money that will at least help break the political machines, etc.), which both undermine the Democratic "pro-government" ideology and often involve Dems. and hence make the Dems. look bad.
We have momentum as a party ... but the EU elections indicate how easily this momentum might be lost in 2010 if we aren't careful. Let's keep the ball rolling fellow Dems!
(2) the center-right in Europe is not the same as our center right (as the liberal blogs have been reporting in what should be our talking point to neutralize the above talking point): the Christian Democratic movement, from its very origins, is more akin to our Bull-moose movement that died out with TR going back to the GOP and which otherwise has largely been absorbed into the Democratic party (as has the McKinley GOP, FWIW, c.f. Atrios' comments about the elites as well as M. Lind's comments about McKinley's GOP being now part and parcel of the Democratic party in Made in Texas).
(3) The larger point, however, is that this does point, however, to the difficulties our side will face in the 2010 midterms. Any lack of economic progress will be used against the Dems. Let's not think that 2006 and 2008 mean the GOP era is over. The Dems still have not addressed the underlying causes of the "Reagan backlash". Archie Bunker-ism still is a potent force because nowadays even a young person like me can say "things were so much better in the olden days -- when my dad was my age, he could afford to live in a nice house in the 'burbs on just his salary ... now with my wife out of work -- even with my roughly equivalent salary -- it's tough to make ends meet". As long as people think things were better off in the "good old days", they are, by definition, oriented toward conservative/reactionary thinking. Moreover, Obama and the national Dems have as yet done little to address major beefs with "gummint" (anyway his powers are limited as most of these beefs deal with state/local government, as I've frequently discussed on this blog ... although Obama can put strings on the stimulus money that will at least help break the political machines, etc.), which both undermine the Democratic "pro-government" ideology and often involve Dems. and hence make the Dems. look bad.
We have momentum as a party ... but the EU elections indicate how easily this momentum might be lost in 2010 if we aren't careful. Let's keep the ball rolling fellow Dems!
# posted by alberich @ 3:18 PM 
