It's a 70's thing. You just wouldn't get it

For those that think we don't have to work this year. -Patrick

Often in the blogosphere I feel a tad bit out of place. For example, I had to have explained to be that "Gnarls Barkley" was not a relative of the power forward.

This is because I actually lived through "That 70's Show". And no, Demi Moore did not date me after it was finished.

But I think I have some insight from living through that bygone era. There is nothing good about losing an election.

Frankly, I get a sense that many in the Right are much like Karl Rove--they presume there is a Republican majority out there that has always and will always exist, and it has only been kicked away by feckless politicians. Once the whacko left gets back in, the voters will be on the hands and knees begging us to get back into office.

This might be what happened after some chick dumped Ashton Kutcher, but this is not how politics always works.  if an incumbent party can unload enough pork barrel on the public, gin up the right divisive wedge issues, and sic a biased press on opponents, it can stay in power quite a while.

I think it is easy for the under 40 crowd to think if we lose this year we will have a quick pit stop out of office. After all, for 26 of the last 28 years we;ve controlled either the White House or Congress. In that brief interlude, that we were out of power the voters saw the light and rewarded us with one of our greatest triumphs in 1994. 

Well, lets look at the 28 years before 1980. While we held the White House for 16 of those years, we held Congress for two. For 12 years in that period we held neither the White House or Congress.  The congressional majorities for the Democrats were usually massive and the Republicans in Congress eager to make nice most of the time. 

I truly think you had to live through the Carter years to understand how profounding dispiriting total liberal control of government can be.  No. the Bee Gees and John Travolta were far from the worst aspects of this era.  What we had was the expectation of unending national decline and increasing government direction; except of course for permissive crime and social policies. Want an idea of what was up---go grab the "Bronx is Burning" miniseries and see what was going on around the Yankees in the late 1970's. Our cities WERE burning.  And the period from 1974- 1980 had to be the worst period in American foreign policy for decades before and afterwards.

I see from the "McCain will ruin the party" crowd the absolute and completely unjustified belief that we will have another 1993-1994 and we will come roaring back from a defeat.  I don;t see it for a varierty of reasons. Does anyone think we have a Newt Gingrich, or even a Bob Dole running our operation on the Hill?  Isn;t it obvious that a McCain loss will be blamed on the entire party, whether it is deserved or not? 

It may be no use explaining--hey would a Yankee fan in 1963 believe his team could go a decade wihout sniffing the postseason?  But in politics it can and does happen. 

Unlike most of the cyberpunks out there I did my purgatory in an era of liberal dystopy already . Want to be a martyr, grab a pew on Sunday.