In a comment upon BooMan’s diary regarding the media coverage of the Lieberman-Lamont battle (Wanker of the Day), supersoling asked the magic question: “I understand the need to get the Senate back, but damn, what will we wind up with? Get enough of these guys in there in the pursuit of a majority and we end up with…what?” This question was aimed at the Santorum-Casey race in Pennsylvania, and I responded to it in that context, but it goes to the heart of the Democratic Party’s situation and the natural reluctance of many denizens of left blogtopia…myself included…to support candidates who are barely palatable (if at all) to our own more left-leaning stances.
From Lamont through Casey and directly on up to Her Hillaryness, when you get right down to it.
My response grew quite lengthy, so I am posting it as a diary.
Read on if you are interested.
Supersoling asks:
“I understand the need to get the Senate back, but damn, what will we wind up with? Get enough of these guys in there in the pursuit of a majority and we end up with…what?”
Radical as I am, the answer, dear supersoling, lies in the stars.
Of which there are uncountable millions.
There are also uncountable millions of voters. (Uncountable? Just watch the census takers skirt rough neighborhoods for more on that.) And the slightest attempt at talking to any of those uncountable millions in a free-form, non-ideologically segregated setting (say that blues festival we went to) will soon convince you that many, MANY of them are unavoidably…stupid, asleep, hypnotized, mis-educated at the most basic levels, any combination of the above and call it what you will.
There is NO WAY that they are going to suddenly wake up. That’s the way it works.
Thus…we progress in small increments most of the time. If at all.
So it goes.
And so goes Casey, too.
Unavoidably.
Santorum is a strong asshole, Casey a weak one.
And there we have it.
We COULD have had say Paul Hackett in Ohio. Or Chuck Pennacchio in PA.. With both of whom I am sure both you and I would have had issues as well. But in this so-far successful system of the Great Compromise, at least two more strong assholes (Schumer, Emmanuel) who are at least nominally on “our” side decided that Hackett was a loose cannon who they might not be able to control, offed him in favor of Casey (plus did not help Pennachio for ditto reasons, I am sure), and here we are.
Casey vs. Santorum.
In a battle of assholes, which kind would YOU rather see win?
Now there is a school of thought that revolves around getting the absolute worst assholes into power as a sure way to really change things, because then the people will wake up and smell the shit. But the filtration system now in place in America…the mass media…seems to be very efficient at covering up that shit smell sufficiently for assholes on BOTH sides (supposed sides, anyway) to consistently rise to the top of the electoral toilet.
So it’s Casey or Santorum.
No one will say that Casey is Latin for anything, because he is a political cipher.
No distinguishing characteristics whatsoever except his ability to go with the flow.
That’s Casey on the right, Santorum on the left.
When confronted with these kinds of choices, I always use the bar idea. If given a choice of either of these people (and no third choice, like being alone) with whom to spend a few hours at a bar, which one would it be?
Casey by a landslide.
I would be forced to try to hurt Santorum within minutes, I am sure.
Casey?
We’d talk baseball and be done with it.
So it goes here in America.
Let us pray that it goes that way in Pennsylvania as well.
But always remember that the Manson-Nixon line runs straight through Pennsylvania.
“Mr. Kurtz-he dead.”
Nope. Conrad was wrong.
Mr. Kurtz lives in Pennsylvania.
York, to be exact.
The horror! The horror!
It’s always with Mr. Kurtz.
Let us pray.
November promises to be a VERY interesting time this time around. In the old Chinese “May you be born into interesting times” manner. I firmly believe that this is America’s last shot at survival. If BushCo stays in an unchallengeable position of power this midterm…
Après l’élection, le déluge.
Bet on it.
Later…
AG