You wish this was Idiocracy
I’ve half whimsically slotted Joseph Biden as number seven in that great presidential rankings list. Right between John Quincy Adams and Chester Arthur. Am I serious? I don’t know, but I do want to take a thumping to the perennial — a list of requirements and plans any president needs to follow through over two terms in a pathway to one of the coveted top two tiers. And I may revise it based on recent events — a deep thought on the question of if there was anything he could have done differently to avert the election outcome, with America losing any claim of “exceptionalism” by joining that list of nations that have popularly elected leaders who previously were involved in a failed coup attempt. He does admit, accidentally in the Woodward book, that Merrick Garland was a mistake.
On the eve of the election, Bill Maher was onto one of his regular hobby horse stock. So, “If Kamala loses” it will be because “she failed to have a ‘Sister Souljah’ Moment.”. That case of candidate Bill Clinton making political hay by denouncing inflammatory comments by rap star Sister Souljah when speaking at Jesse Jackson’s event. In the context of messaging in 2024, I do not know what the Bill Mahers of the country wanted Harris to do. Deliver a 30 minute speech on stating that the word “Latinx” sucks? Rush into the prisons holding the two instances that fall somewhere in the vicinity of “sex change operations for illegal immigrants in prison” and not leave until the penis is removed from one and the breasts removed from the other? We demand performative symbolic political measures NOW!
Enter the MSNBC pile of Democratic chatterers, packed with a number of ex-Republicans who can slide back in. Donny Deutsch wants to move to the center. Surely somewhere between the extremes of not insulting the Haitian of small town Ohio and accusing them of eating people’s pets there is a sensible position all sides can agree? Joe Scarborough flips around either 90 degrees or 180 degrees to demand mirror looking.
Chris Matthews is always amazingly vacuous in his observations, and shot his wad (as though he hadn’t already) as a dead ender on Biden’s campaign. Understand, I have not heard one of these commentaries, but I close my eyes and think I can spot the words.
After any lost election, the losing party turns into cultural critics always. Or not always, sometimes they just claim a win anyways. I see Keith Olberman quoting Mencken. To be sure, his elitism is an interesting facet for him — a bit ago I found myself wanting to each across electronic devices and “rube-splain” against some derisive and seemingly not all in fun comments about tourist gee-shucking on tall buildings, like they have never seen tall buildings before. But he can keep his Mencken, I guess. The reality is you can probably keep the cultural criticism moving in winning elections. I myself would want to elect boring uncharismatic robots who fade out of view much of the time, but the public demands otherwise — and one way or the other. Maybe the Republicans will annoy me by succeeding with my strategum in four years — feed the public’s weary respond after a decade and a half of Trump, as the Democrats good by nominating to match a flashy celebrity.
The silver lining for this one, it should be pointed out, that in losing the Republican + 10 states in the Senate, the political identities of every Democrat no longer lies in figuring out how to win over a sizable chunk of Trump voters.