Message Not Received

3:09 pm EST November 10th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 14 Comments

After the 2004 election, many Democrats heard "moral values" stated as the reason why John Kerry lost to George Bush and it began a long process of hand-wringing and tooth gnashing as to why the so-called "values voters" didn’t go our way. After the dust settled, however, it began to look more and more that the reason Kerry lost was because on the most important issue – national security – he looked weak and while Bush may not have had all the answers, he was solid. Independent voters, not the base, swung the election to Bush because they preferred something solid they didn’t love over something squishy they might have liked otherwise.

The GOP is apparently making a similarly hasty miscalculation as a result of their losses. Conservative blogs are filled with chatter about a supposedly conservative electorate that shifted the balance of power because they were concerned about federal spending. Nonsense.

The electorate turned out the GOP because it had lost control of the government. Out-and-out bribery, covering up for perverts, a war gone wild, and a botched response to a disaster of unprecedented proportions. People don’t want a bloated government, but they don’t want one that is paralyzed by a hurricane and a bunch of thugs in the middle east (the same military that destroyed the axis is bogged down in Iraq because of a failure to plan – unbelievable).

The right has put a silly bumper sticker on all this and say people want "smaller government" but they want one that’s smarter, not smaller. They want the government to govern, whereas the Republican apparatus is built to win campaigns. A friend recently echoed Harry Reid’s sentiments to me – we have a lot of work to do. This is the progressive/Democratic assessment of what this election means. Yes, winning in 2008 is important but we have a lot of valuable government functions to repair after the GOP just absolutely trashed the place.

So what is the true message of Election 2006?

It’s good government, stupid.

Topic: 2006 Election

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14 Responses to “Message Not Received”

plane says:

November 10, 2006 at 4:00 pm

Oliver…stop telling the RNC how to learn from their mistakes.
Oliver Willis says:

November 10, 2006 at 4:05 pm

Dude, they are NOT going to listen to me. Thank God.
Quaker in a Basement says:

November 10, 2006 at 4:41 pm

You mean we get to offer them advice about how to run their party? Just like they’ve been doing to us for the last six years?

Bonus!
Mike Cohen says:

November 10, 2006 at 5:55 pm

Despite their “smaller government” talk, the GOP has always increased the size of the government and increased spending.
LMMatthews says:

November 10, 2006 at 7:11 pm

My favorite theme today throughout the conservative nutjob radio network was that “we’re not conservative enough”. Full speed ahead, Neocon Nitwits. You know, I’m convinced if these nutcases go around a little more to the right they’ll have to come full circle to the left.
Quaker in a Basement says:

November 10, 2006 at 8:15 pm

“…if these nutcases go around a little more to the right they’ll have to come full circle to the left.”

Before that can happen, they’ll have to come to grips with their corporatist and militarist inclinations.
midderpidge says:

November 10, 2006 at 9:48 pm

I saw FOX pushing Michael Steele as Mehlman’s replacement.
paulo says:

November 10, 2006 at 10:56 pm

When boy wonder came in there were the reports of the mythical W’s missing on all the keyboards in the White House.

Now in the last 6 years these bastards ripped apart the motherboard of the entire government. But somehow the CPU is still (mal) functioning.

Yeah, there’s a lot to do.
Michael says:

November 11, 2006 at 1:04 am

This is an incredibly insightful post, occasional gems like this keep me coming back.
ivyfree says:

November 11, 2006 at 12:31 pm

It’s okay if they want to spend the next couple of decades doing everything wrong because they think they didn’t do it wrong enough. I’m fine with that!
buma says:

November 12, 2006 at 1:30 pm

I hope the GOP is able to see what is clearly obvious —that the Rupublicans lost because they were not conservative enough. It may just be spin (or denial that the voting public gave the party the proverbial finger), but it’s interesting how the policies they trumpeted in past elections are suddenly no longer conservative polices when their party loses.
buma says:

November 12, 2006 at 1:45 pm

A republican friend of mine said that nationally the 2006 vote was trending GOP in the final days, thanks to the hoopla over the dumb Kerry joke, and he went on to lament the firing of Rumsfeld after the election. He actually thought it would have scored political points for the Repubs to have removed the R-feld prior to 7 Nov. I don’t know how these people get themselves so out of touch. Again, I hope the GOP never starts questioning their policies.
bushwacked says:

November 12, 2006 at 2:37 pm

Last week I got to hear the regurgitated lies of neocon talk show hosts like how Clinton did more damage to the military than any other president, how Kerry hated the military, etc.

After the “terrorist message” last week, I’ll get to hear about how much Al Queda was happy that democrats had won:

The American people have put their feet at the beginning of the right path to save themselves from their predicament, and they have begun to realize the treachery and subservience of their president and his clique to Israel. Thus, they voted with some sense in their latest elections. …Are they going to redress the huge deficit of budget, which was wasted away in a stupid losing war? Will they realize that the tax payers are actually paying the price for the bullet with which their sons are killed in the quagmire of Iraq?

When did terrorists become economic experts and physical conservatives? The so-called conservatives think only neo-con republicans are patriotic and the only ones who can fight terrorism and protect America. It’s too bad they are buying this hook like and sinker. The only hope is there is enough sane Americans to recognize the difference and keep these maniacs out of power.
Adam Herman says:

November 15, 2006 at 4:24 pm

Oliver, if you care about good government, you might want to pay attention to who is going to be in the Democratic leadership.

If you don’t hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire, they’ll disappoint you. And your response to the Murtha-Hoyer race seems to basically be, “I’m going to stop paying attention now”.

Say it ain’t so!