Coulda been better, but coulda been worse. Now what does it all mean?

by Ken

I already did my election post mortem in my post yesterday. When I finally set about catching up on the day's results this morning (I had a swell time at the Coney Island subway yard, thank you, and managed to evade reality until the clock radio went on at 7am), it turned out to be very much what we've been expecting for some time. Some bad things happened that I was hoping might be avoided, but at the same time, some good things happened, and some not-bad things failed to happen. All in all, it could have been better, but then again, it could have been worsel

For anyone who's still surprised by the disinclination of so many Democratic and independent voters to support Democrats yesterday, I would again direct attention, first, for a glimmering of the terrible financial-political struggle we face in the wake of the megacorporate oligarchy's consolidation of power, to Bob Herbert's NYT column yesterday, "Fast Track to Inequality," and then, for a sense of the in-power Dems' failure on the ground, to David Dayen's FDL post yesterday, "The Story of the Election –- Woman Sells Note from Obama to Pay Mortgage, Medical Bills."

Herbert concluded:

This hyperconcentration of wealth and income, and the overwhelming political clout it has put into the hands of the monied interests, has drastically eroded the capacity of government to respond to the needs of the middle class and others of modest income.

Nothing better illustrates the enormous power that has accrued to this tiny sliver of the population than its continued ability to thrive and prosper despite the Great Recession that was largely the result of their winner-take-all policies, and that has had such a disastrous effect on so many other Americans.

D-Day concluded:

Obama’s done some things and it’s important not to lose sight of them. But outside the political junkie class, he is measured on whether he brought a positive development in the lives of the great mass of people. Unfortunately, people are still unemployed, they’re still losing their homes, they’re still getting screwed by their loan servicers and they still have little recourse in bankruptcy. They are on the brink; their sacrifice and their struggle demands an overwhelming policy response. They got tinkering around the edges.

We did get our first “blame the whiny Left” column today, and I eagerly anticipate many more. But that’s a stupid debate among elites. You can blame the lack of material economic improvements for the circumstances that occur today. Some of these were because of the depths of the crisis, some because of serious policy misjudgments, some because of an unwillingness to take on the forces of power who caused the problem. But it’s this truth, the story of Jennifer Cline and her struggle to survive, that has brought us to this point.

For more anecdotal evidence, this item from HuffPost's Hill Report was passed on to me:

The scene from C-SPAN's control room tonight: http://bit.ly/bqJ0Rg

GOTV FAIL - Brian Ryder, 34, wrote HuffPost to explain his lack of motivation today. The Tinley Park, Ill. resident said that a massive pile of student loan debt, combined with reduced hours and a bleak job outlook, kept him from voting. "Like many, I have lost any and all faith that voting will do anything whatsoever to help with the issues that actually matter," he wrote. "On the other side of the fence, the Tea Party movement seems directionless and equally inept. For someone seemingly stuck in the middle of it all, I feel like there is no choice available, nor any real help on the horizon."

WE'VE KNOWN FOR SOME TIME THE "LESSON"
THAT THE COMMON WISDOM WOULD "LEARN"

It's already been appearing in the infotainment news media and the assorted Village media:

Democrats were routed because they went too far left. Their only hope now is to move back to the center.

I expect I don't have to point out to DWT readers that while Dems did some marginal ever-so-slightly-leftish things, the notion that either the Obama White House or the Congressional Democratic leaderships "moved left" is ridiculous.

What I've been dreading ever since it became clear that this administration intended to govern from an essentially right-of-center position -- the position that would once have been occupied by moderate Republicans (back when there were Republicans) -- is that the president's progressive-sounding campaign rhetoric, which was apparently just for election show, would cause his actual policies to be mistaken for actual progressive policies, and since they seemed clearly doomed to fail as matters of both policy and politics, the effect would be to discredit actual progressive policies for the next however many years. Call it a generation.

This has been a recurring theme for my colleague Ian Welsh since those early months of the Obama administration. Ian started out ahead of those of us who allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking that candidate Obama, even though he pointedly never made any claim to being a progressive or supporting progressive policies, might nevertheless support policies that, you know, a lot of the time sort of overlapped with the kind of hope and change we were hoping for. Ian has this thing for listening to what pols actually say, and so found himself unsurprised by what the more hopeful among us kept seeing as serial "betrayals" by the evolving new administration.

Here, then, is Ian's election post mortem:

Why Dems Lost for Complete Idiots

The Democrats gained control of both Congress and the Presidency. They then pursued ineffective policies which didn’t fix the economy. They increased deportations of Hispanics. They restricted abortion rights for women. They spat on gays repeatedly. They betrayed unions. They gutted civil rights, going even further than George W. Bush (who never said he had the right to assassinate Americans.) They saved bankers who then rewarded themselves with record bonuses and salaries while average American wages actually declined.

The base was demoralized, not because the Dems went too far left, but because they went too far right. The non-Democratic voters were angered because they elected Democrats to fix the goddamn economy and to not be George Bush, who they were sick of. Dems didn’t do what they were elected to do.

That’s why Dems are losing –- because they demoralized their own base in a base election year, because they didn’t fix the economy, and because they thought Americans wanted them to be George Bush, just a bit smarter.

This isn’t a repudiation of liberalism or progressivism or socialism (Americans wouldn’t recognize a socialist if he gave them real universal healthcare). It is a repudiation of a Democratic party which failed to fix the economy and which became identified with bailouts for the rich.

Anyone who doesn’t understand this, is, forgive me, a complete idiot.

THIS MAY BE A GOOD TIME TO RECALL
IAN'S PREDICTION OF WHAT WE FACE NOW

I quoted this post of Ian's when he first put it up, but perhaps I should have stressed that he wasn't joking, or trying to shock us. He was simply looking ahead based on what we know. Now that his first point is history, perhaps more attention may be devoted to the rest of it.

How the Next 4 Years Will Play Out

2010 – Republicans take control of the House. The Senate remains in Democratic hands, but the margin is reduced.

2011 – Bush's tax cuts are extended. Social Security is slashed. This is done at Obama's behest, so that Dems get blamed for it.

2012 – The Republicans take the Senate (this is virtually guaranteed, 2012′s geography is awful for Dems).They retain the House. They probably take the Presidency.

2013 – In charge of the judiciary, Congress and the Presidency, and with hard right crazies as a substantial caucus, the Republicans finally repeal the New Deal. SS is turned into privatized accounts (older folks will keep most of what they have), Medicare is slashed going forward, regulatory agencies the EPA are cut to the bone, education is turned over to the private sector as the Feds withdraw virtually all support for public schools and move to a voucher system. A new bubble (the last one) is inflated at all costs by Bernanke. Massive slashing of the federal civil service occurs, programs which are not slashed are transferred down to the States, where corruption is easier.

2014 – President Teabag starts a war somewhere to keep pump up the military Keynesianism. Said war is used as an excuse to even further curtail civil liberties.

If the Republicans don't win the presidency in 2012, no big deal, they'll still control Congress and the Supremes, and they'll get him in in 2016. (Obama will do much of what they want anyway, and get the blame.)

#