Saturday, November 25, 2006

Déjà vu (in the non-Berran sense)

An amazing sight has met our eyes in the last three weeks.

Most readers of p3 are familiar with the experience of watching in horror and dismay, for five election cycles beginning in 1996, as the Democrats carefully studied electoral defeat after electoral defeat, and concluded that the smart thing to do was more of the exact same thing that obviously got them cast into the wilderness in the first place.

Now--and, to be sure, we're only talking three weeks here, not ten years, but still--now we see the GOP and its base apparently locked onto the same self-deluding, self-destructive path.

Who did the Repubs tap for their leadership team in the 110th Congress? Any new faces, someone embodying an understanding of the changed electoral realities after the 2006 elections? Someone distanced from the politically and morally poisoned group that have led them for the last six years or more? Someone representing a fresh, innovative direction to pull them out of the swamp?

Nope. Just the opposite, in fact.

Same with the Christianist right: Did the midterm elections, coming at the crest of a wave of embarrassments and disappointments, provide an opportunity for them to reconsider any part of their fundamental strategy?

Uhm, no, not so much.

Welcome to our world, movement conservatives. See you in ten years.

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