The election is over, kids. You can go to bed without thrashing around in doubt and/or fear, wondering if your favorite candidate would make it into the particular office they were running for. If you care about Congressional elections (you DO, right?), then we’ll see you again in two years.
But we all know which race drew the most attention this time around, and we’re trying to figure out at which point leaving our yard sign out stops being celebration and starts being gloating.
I know that it’s already gloating if I mention how much the Republican party is suffering right now, trying to piece together the pieces that remain. They’re suffering so hard, it looks like Ross Douthat of “The Atlantic” is even convinced that there is a populist wing of the GOP.
I was going to complain about this misunderstanding of the word “populism” until I looked up a link for the definition. I’ve always understood “populism” as the third and fourth definitions, which add up to egalitarianism and a respect for the ‘least of these.’
But it seems that Douthat is operating mostly on dictionary.com’s second definition of the word, which includes “any of various, often … anti-intellectual political movements.” I hereby concede the point.
If the acceptance of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a viable VP candidate is any indication, then the GOP truly consists only of that populist/anti-intellectual wing.
But though I use the word ‘truly’ there, I know that this is a false oversimplification of what is at issue. Those Republicans who choose to be part of the anti-intellectual wing do not represent the party as a whole, merely those taken advantage of by operatives such as Lee Atwater.
According to Brooke’s interview with Stefan Forbes, who made a documentary on the man, Atwater rose to prominence while managing Karl Rove’s campaign for head of College Republicans. True to Rovian form, they caught positive attention from the GOP higher-ups by throwing out votes and quesitoning people’s right to vote. Which got Atwater hired by the George H.W. Bush campaign.
Atwater’s central tactic was to successfully underestimate the intelligence of voters through spin, outright lies, and evasion. He essentially paved the way for that most maverickian of mavericky mavericks, and also, too, Sarah Palin, maverick.
Basically, this week’s “On the Media” feels like a postmortem for the Republican Party, now that they seem as divided as the Democratic Party.
And tacked on to the GOP postmortem is a remembrance dedicated to the proudly liberal Studs Terkel. It’s less sweet than informative. It also serves as a nice palate cleanser after all the GOP coverage.
After that (it’s not its own story; it comes right before the credits), Brooke congratulates Bob on a prediction he made last week about the War on Christmas – yes, conservative pundits have already begun their annual presumption festival, saying that “Happy Holidays” is ruining Christmas. It’s just too bad that Christmas already ruined Yule, and that Yule ruined Saturnalia. When do I get my “We say ‘Happy Saturnalia’” bumper sticker?
This week’s OTM Highlights reel was written by Matthew, after getting up too early on Kerry’s birthday, after making her get up with him to open her hot pink deer lamp.
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