When I see bad, or for that matter good, polls I can’t be too worked up. Of course I prefer the Democrat up, and up by a lot. And of course I’d prefer the generic ballot look better. But I’m not staring into the abyss, because the Democrats aren’t in the same place as the Mariners.
Believe me, as a Mariners fan, I’ve slogged through some terrible seasons without being able to change anything. A few years ago at the end of a bear of a season when Seattle and Texas were long eliminated, I was sitting in the first row of an outfield seat. Right in front of me, a Mariner’s popup came near the warning track, and the Ranger’s right fielder went into a dive for the ball. “I got it, I got it!” I yelled, and the Ranger dropped the ball. While I like to think I made him drop it, the truth is he probably just bobbled it because he was an AAA call up without much Major League experience. That’s the closest I’ve come to changing anything on the field.
But it’s often said that politics isn’t a spectator sport. And this year as every year, I’m not going to just sit and watch. I’ve worked the phones, donated, and knocked on doors for candidates I believe in, and will continue through November.
And that’s where the next few months for the D’s can be a lot better than the next few months for the M’s. There are enough fine candidates that we can all make a difference. I don’t know what the polls show for DelBene, but I’ll be making calls and knocking on doors for her. Same with Patty Murray (the poll Goldy cited earlier aside). Those of you who live south of here can do the same for Heck.
If you aren’t inspired by those people, there are plenty of state and local races and initiative campaigns. If you don’t like to talk to strangers about politics, they can all use money. They can all use letters to the editor. They can all use you mentioning them on Facebook and Twitter. They can all use you talking to friends and putting up yard signs. All of those things will change the facts, and matter more than what you see in polls.
I’ll be knocking on doors for Derek Kilmer next weekend!
Carl,
Great post. The Ms’ season pains me to the core. Hey, but they did beat the Rangers tonight–Aardsma actually did his job. Like you suggested, the odds of a fan influencing a game are rather, uh, limited. But, we can influence political outcomes. Aside from the legislative races, two very important judicial races will be decided in the primary–two Supreme Court races. Jim Johnson is a total hack for corporate interests. Please look at Stan Rumbaugh for that seat. Also, Charlie Wiggins has spent most of his career as an appellate lawyer. Wiggins over Sanders is a good vote for those who care about the rule of law. I can’t believe no one ran against Barbara Madsen. Just write in your neighbor’s name against her. Hell, I’d have ran against her if I knew she’d run unopposed. She has no business being on the Supreme Court.
Obama disappointment has me pretty demoralized and immobilized. But perhaps I’ll try to rise out of my cynical stupor. Certainly defeating Jim Johnson would be a great win over the agents of Satan, and a win worth fighting for.
Late in the summer of 2008 I invited the neighborhood over to my house for a “block party” BBQ. It cost me about $200 for hamburgers, hot dogs, and the “fixings”.
I made sure everyone there knew why I was voting Democratic that year. I found that quite a few had been hearing the B.S. from the Republican noise machine, either directly or indirectly (from relatives or co-workers), and I was able to assure them that Obama was in fact born in the U.S., he wasn’t a Muslim extremist, etc.
One of the things the Republicans count on is peer pressure. They try to convince those in the middle that there is overwhelming dissatisfaction with Democrats (but not Republicans), and that they should feel the same. After all, according to their reasoning if “most” people feel one way, and you another, then it must be you who are misinformed or in error, not them? That’s why you see so much effort made to publicize Republican-leaning polls.
This might help.
David Stockman, Ronald Reagan’s first budget director, is a “fiscal Republican”. He was attracted to the Republican shouts of concern about the deficit, especially during the campaign of 1980.
But Stockman quickly became disillusioned during the first years of Reagan’s presidency. He confessed in his book that all the numbers used to justify the sweeping tax cuts made in the first weeks of the Reagan administration were merely “rosy scenarios”, projecting unrealistic growth rates to pretend that taxes could be cut, spending cut, and the budget balanced within a few years. In reality, he found that while cutting taxes was the easy part, even the Republicans were stiffly resistant to any budget cuts, especially those which benefited their primary constituency and supporters. So by the time he resigned, the U.S. was in a cycle of significant budget deficits stretching as far as the eye can see. At the end of his book which details his in-fighting within the Reagan administration to create an honest budget and accurate bookkeeping, he reveals that if Carter’s policies had been allowed to continue, the budget would have been balanced by 1984. Instead, after eight years of Reagan and four of George H.W. Bush, the budget wasn’t balanced until 2000 – just before George W. Bush took over.
Recently Stockman wrote a piece for the N.Y. Times which reviews the Republican fiscal performance – and that of the nation – over the past 30 years. Mind you, he’s no Democrat; he still has philosophical objections to many social spending programs which Democrats support. But he eviscerates the Republicans for their hypocritical approach to extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, at a time when our revenue and spending are so far out of balance. In his words:
Source: NYT: “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse” by David Stockman
We all like to ignore polls we disagree with the results of…but more often than not, polls like Rasmussen are right on.
Seems like a desperation/frustration plea to ignore respectable polls.
Check this out–
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
The Democrats “Blame it on Bush” strategy doesn’t seem to be working too well. Real Americans don’t like be mislead, like ObaMao did about the Porkulous Package. The Dems are trying to put lipstick on the pig they created. Will attacking Bush work??
Will mocking & ridiculing the Tea Party distract voters from the Dems record??
It’s their only hope.
6 Cyn
Really? Because either Rasmussen didn’t poll that or you’re not presenting the results. What I read in the polls is that most people DO blame Bush for the mess we’re in. I dunno, maybe you’re just ignorant.
Hey, all the Democrats need are a couple of big bats!
Namblao’s DaddyLove spews: “…most people DO blame Bush for the mess we’re in.”
That is soooo last year! The Obamanuts have had their 18 months of infamy and they now own the problem. If you still believe this administrations lies you’ve been pwned.
Daddy Love @ 7–
Apparently you have been living in a cave.
Blame it on Bush is having greatly diminished value. By November, it will be even worse for ObaMao.
Monday, August 02, 2010
One other thing–
Blaming it on Bush does not translate into Democrat votes because ObaMao promised he would reverse the course…and has made it worse in the long-run by excessive Deficit Spending. The R’s are smart in educating voters that all the ObaMao/Democrat Debt the last 18 months is putting our problems on our Grandkids…kicking the can down the road rather than truly addressing the key issue of Deficit Spending and too much/too costly Big Government.
Welcome to 2010 Daddy Love.
Been smokin’ too much of Lee’s Special Bud??
Hey, everytime I get upset with the Democrats and consider changing parties, I just look at how the Republicans managed things whenever they were in charge.
I remember Nixon’s 1968 “secret plan to get us out of Vietnam”, enemies lists, Watergate, etc.
Ford’s “Whip Inflation Now” (WIN) buttons, which basically asked workers to refrain from asking for raises even though the cost of living was rising.
Reagan’s Laffler Curve, the “Rosy Scenario”, and ketsup being considered a vegitable for the purpose of the school lunch program. The deficits resulting from the Reagan tax cuts which created a budget which couldn’t be balanced until twenty years later. The incredible ineptitude by which that administration figured that a big battleship lobbing shells on muslim militias in the hills wouldn’t be linked with the vulnerabilities of U.S. Marines on a “peacekeeping” mission in what was essentially undefended territory around the Beirut airport, swapping arms for hostages, and thinking that giving the Iraqis satelite photos of Iranian positions wouldn’t eventually get back to the Iranians, with some serious consequences (that’s what caused them to start their nuclear program).
George H.W. Bush was better, but he had his own moments. It took Maggie Thatcher to convince him to take back Kuwait from the Iraqis. And when the recession of 1990-93 hit, he was reluctant to address it, which ultimately cost him his second term.
And do I even need to go into George W. Bush’s presidency?????
If the Republicans did what they say they want to do, it might be different. But they don’t. Every time. Every time you give them the keys to the government, they loot the treasury to the enrichment of their wealthy buddies, and then complain that we won’t let them have the social security trust fund with which to do the same.
No matter how upset I get with the Democrats, the Republicans are several orders of magnitude worse. And, of course, I expect the wingnuts here to come back with some list of Clinton’s mistakes, or bash Carter again. But again, the level of damage done is far greater under the Republicans. There is no way I will allow them back into power as long as I have any way possible to convince my family, friends, and neighbors to vote against them.
John 425 @ 9 said:
Gee, when the economy collapsed in 2008, you wingnuts were trying very hard to blame it on Clinton, and even Carter!
Asking a Republican to be consistent is apparantly a futile task. Their attention span doesn’t last past the last sound bite.
“Gee, when the economy collapsed in 2008, you wingnuts were trying very hard to blame it on Clinton, and even Carter!”
Hell, in 2008 they were already blaming candidate Obama. Something about the markets crashing in fear of having a scary black, angry, Jihadist foreigner as president.