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Of Anger-filled Lies and Magical Thinking

Posted: February 15, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 elections |15 Comments

I’ve never seen an election  where the fight between a few candidates is basically boiling down to who can pass off the most lies, be the most outraged and outrageous, and which Super Pac can out-anger and out-mean one another.  Has our country gotten to some point where magical thinking and lies hold more sway than well-reasoned arguments?  Have parts of the populace become so bitter, ignorant and angry that mean is the new black?

It looks like the Santorum and Romney campaigns and their super PAC proxies are going to treat our eyes and ears to a new low in civility for this country.   Is there some double dog dare out there on who can run the nastiest, most lie-filled campaign?  Obviously, voters are rewarding this so is it the candidates or the base that have conjured up the wicked? Or, perhaps, this is just the natural outcropping of years and years and years of subjecting the Republican hypothalamus to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and all that insanity, anger and lies.  Maybe this is the new status quo.

A brutal, two-front attack from the campaign and the SuperPAC. “The expectation is that Santorum, just given his personality, is going to whine like crazy,” said a Romney advisor.

Mitt Romney’s campaign — and its slashing Super PAC — are locking their sights on Rick Santorum for a campaign that may make previous attacks on Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich look like mere love taps.

In an interview with BuzzFeed, a Romney advisor offered details of the campaign’s coming two-front attack, which the campaign expects will be echoed by the Super PAC, which cannot legally coordinate its message, but which has already bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of airtime in key states.

“Santorum’s a blank slate, so everyone’s projecting on to him what they want because he’s the last anti-Romney,” said the advisor. “Santorum is going to get introduced to people that don’t know him.”

The assumption by the Republican establishment and the  beltway punditry is that Romney is still the most “electable” candidate in the Republican Primary.  Jonathan Chait wonders if this might actually be a bad assumption.  Frankly, I wonder if all this combined Romney vitriol could back fire.  Can Santorum start collecting a sympathy vote?  After all, taking down the original Mean Boy of the Republican Party–Newt Gingrich–isn’t just  a snicker worthy feat. It’s a study in what big money Super Pacs and a cut throat, win at any cost candidate will do to grab the prize.  Romney’s campaign seems like a hostile takeover of the Republican base.  The base wants a white knight.  Are Romney’s tactics making that an impossible dream?  Are we seeing some new level of scorched earth tactics where they damage everything to the point of uselessness?

Santorum has attracted a terrible reputation among the overclass. He is defined by his crude, bigoted social conservatism, which colors the broader perception of him as an extremist. This in turn leeches out into a sense, often reflected in news coverage, which likewise reflects the social biases of the overclass, that Santorum is a fringe candidate who would repel swing voters.

In fact, there are, very roughly speaking, two kinds of swing voters. One kind is economically conservative, socially liberal swing voters. This is the kind of voter you usually read about, because it’s the kind most familiar to political reporters – affluent and college educated. But there’s a second kind of voter at least as numerous – economically populist and socially conservative. Think of disaffected blue-collar workers, downscale white men who love guns, hate welfare, oppose free trade, and want higher taxes on the rich and corporations. Romney appeals to the former, but Santorum more to the latter.

As hard a time as Santorum would have closing the sale among certain moderate quarters, I don’t think it’s sunk in quite how poisoned Romney’s image has become among downscale voters. Coverage of Romney’s wealth, corporate history, and partially released tax situation coincided with, and almost certainly caused, a collapse in his support with white voters with income under $50,000. Republicans have enjoyed great success attracting downscale whites in recent years, but that success has hinged in part on things like not nominating standard-bearers who epitomize everything blue-collar whites distrust about their party.

An interesting poll by CNN shows that the class warfare–as well as the war on women–is impacting internal metrics in the Republican party.  Is Santorum appealing to Republican bitter knitters who aren’t being characterized as “clinging to guns and bibles” but in some other equally insulting way?  Can Republicans handle this group that tends to a more populist right wing outrage in a productive way?  In 2008, Obama democrats had to orchestrate a convention to remove their problem.  What’s going to happen to the “not Romney” crowd when they hit the Florida convention if this gets any nastier?

A CNN/ORC International poll also indicates that Santo rum supporters are much more highly motivated than those backing Romney.”The new numbers indicate a split in the Republican party that goes deeper than ideology, with signs of a gender gap and class warfare breaking out in the GOP ranks,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. According to the survey, released Tuesday afternoon, Santorum and Romney are basically all tied up for the lead in the race for the GOP nomination. Thirty four percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they back Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, with 32% backing Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has been at or near the top of national polling over the past year. Santorum’s two point margin over Romney is well within the survey’s sampling error.

Can whiny Rick Santorum turn this into a David v. Goliath thing that will further fragment Republican interests? There’s an op ed in the WSJ that suggest Santorum might be more electable because he can also pick up disgruntled blue collar dems.  The op ed was penned by James Freeman so take a deep breath before you read it and/or go over there.

But how to explain recent polling from Rasmussen Reports? In a nationwide survey released this morning, President Obama’s lead over Mitt Romney in a potential head-to-head contest has swelled to 10 points, with the president capturing 50% support to Mr. Romney’s 40%. Meanwhile, Rasmussen finds that Mr. Obama leads Mr. Santorum by just four points, 46% to 42%. Another recent Rasmussen poll, focused on the key battleground state of Ohio, finds a dead heat in a potential Obama-Santorum contest. But the president leads Mr. Romney by four points among Buckeye voters. The evidence from Rasmussen clearly suggests that, at least for the moment, Mr. Santorum is the most electable Republican.

So, is just more of the base displaying their any one but Romney behavior?  Will surging Rick go the way of Herman, Michelle, Newt, and Goodhair?  Really good question.  This makes Super Tuesday an acid test for Super Pacs and money,  the strength of the Republican establishment and pundit pets, and the depth of the outrage from Tea Party and Religious fanatics.  Will Willard be forced into taking the petulant Rickster as a VP or will it result in a brokered convention with some unforeseeable result?  I’m not certain if there’s a good enough crystal ball out there at this point to form a good hypothesis. The conventional wisdom keeps coming up wrong this year.

I do know that I have never seen an election season like this one.  The lies are bigger than all the wonders of the world put together.   I’ve also never seen so much ignorance and anger driving so many people.  No one candidate seems to be able to harness it for very long no matter how hard they try.  This can only get more interesting.  Perhaps it’s going to take a few sociologists and physiologists to explain this season where lies, hate,  and magical thinking seem to carry more weight than anything else.

15 Comments on “Of Anger-filled Lies and Magical Thinking”

  1. ralphb's avatar ralphb says:
    February 15, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    I can’t help but wonder what the speeches of Santorum or Romney would sound like in the original angry German.

  2. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    February 15, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    My friend and occasional Beltway landlord Joe Williams has taken to calling the Romney campaign The Death Star. Sooner or later, if you’re standing in the way of Willard Romney’s Moroni-blessed path to the White House, the Death Star will orbit in your direction and bad things will follow. So far, assaying the role of Alderaan, and unable on their own to hit the ventilator shaft, have been Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, and Gingrich has caught the full blast twice — once in Iowa and then in Florida. (This now concludes the nerdish metaphor portion of our programming.) Now, it appears, it’s Rick Santorum’s turn. Willard and Rick are neck-and-neck in Michigan and, as the stretch drive looms, they’re both returning to their basic skillz. Romney has fired up the super-PAC to full power, and Santorum has decided to crank the crazy up to 11. (Rick’s also put up an ad with a guy shooting a “mud gun” that’s within inches of being funny.) Lead with your strengths, boys.

    It seems that Willard has decided that the way to attack Santorum is to paint him as a “Washington insider.” The new commercials all talk about earmarks and pork, and Santorum’s (entirely defensible) votes to raise the debt ceiling, and his having voted to raise his own pay. There’s even a shot taken at Santorum for having voted for “the bridge to nowhere.” (And somewhere in Alaska, a snow macheen just blew a gasket.) What’s interesting, of course, is that this is the only line of attack that Willard’s left himself. He no longer can take advantage of Santorum’s most obvious weakness — that he is a misogynist god-botherer with extremist positions on everything to do with how humans have their sexytime with each other, and have I mentioned recently what a dick he is? Romney has sold so much of his political soul to the wingnut base of his party on these issues that his positions on them are now indistinguishable from Santorum’s, except that Romney is (marginally) less of a dick than Santorum is. And this is too bad for Willard because, emboldened by his recent rise in the polls, Santorum is running all over the country, behaving like a tinpot religious satrap and talking like a nut.

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/romney-santorum-2012-6655656?click=pp

    This too …

    • Allie's avatar Allie says:
      February 15, 2012 at 3:58 pm

      Some of the comments over there had me rolling on the floor. Gotta love Pierce’s take downs – they bring out the wise crackers.

  3. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    February 15, 2012 at 3:09 pm

    President Barack Obama’s approval rating is back up to 50% for the first time in more than eight months, according to a CNN/ORC International Poll.

    In the national survey, Obama holds an edge against all the remaining Republican presidential candidates in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. Obama’s approval rating appears up slightly among independents.

    The poll indicates that the GOP’s advantage on voter enthusiasm has been erased, and that the number of Americans who think things are going well in the country is on the rise — from 25% in November to 30% in December and 40% now.

    via CNN breaking news

    • ralphb's avatar ralphb says:
      February 15, 2012 at 3:16 pm

      Guess that means all the GOP isn’t nuts. Just a rousing majority.

    • Allie's avatar Allie says:
      February 15, 2012 at 4:08 pm

      Who thinks it’s getting better? I heard that last night from frackin’ Lou Dobbs on a John Stewart re-broadcast. People are being told it’s getting better.

      And even if the economy is agonizingly grinding it’s way back for the 99%, it’s painfully obvious we’re headed for a war with Iran – I guess because Iraq worked out so well.

      $10/gal gas should do the economy wonders!

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        February 15, 2012 at 4:28 pm

        It is getting better. It’s painfully slow though. I think the people that have jobs right now are safer. I don’t have a lot of hope to generate growth for those that are unemployed though. The worst is at the state level where all those nasty governors are letting people in the public health, safety and education fields go. They’ve got no place to go because they’re in monopsony markets. Government has the monopoly over providing those jobs. Gas prices aren’t increasing that much. I think that Saudi Arabia and Israel may be going after Iran. Their oil is only important to Europe and China. It’s not the best of times, but it’s not the worst either.

      • ralphb's avatar ralphb says:
        February 15, 2012 at 5:59 pm

        It looks like those speculators are driving gas prices up again. Usage is still down and oil prices have no “real” reason to rise as of now.

        The economy is getting better. For the past couple of months I’ve been bombarded with lists of “Jobs you might be interested in” from my old LinkedIn profile. They are mostly local and, if I was in the market for a job, I would be interested in some of them.

  4. northwestrain's avatar northwestrain says:
    February 15, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    Santorium is the not Romney. Most voters outside of Penn don’t know who he is or that he is a raving nut case. Both Ricky and Mittens tell lies and just make up stuff. Isn’t it the job of the media to point out the lies?

    The only good thing is that these fellas are giving the comedians lots of material.

    =========
    OT- sort of — There are a couple of books that I’m reading — eye witness accounts of two women who escaped the fundamentalist Later Day Saints polygamist cult. Of course the LDS rejected polygamy in 1890 and excommunicated the FLDS a few decades later.

    But both religious cults have a lot of commonality once the polygamist part of the FLDS is removed. Women are submissive to men and can only get to the Mormon heaven via a male.

    Church of Lies by Flora Jessop — born, raised and ran away from the FLDS cult. Child abuse, sexual abuse etc. described in detail. So Catholic Bishops — are you guys going to support the freedom of religion of the FLDS. Both groups have a similar teachings about the inferiority of women and how they must be submissive.

    Life After the Cult: A Survivor’s Lessons by Carolyn Jessop. Carolyn escaped one of the cult compounds with her children — the only women to escape with all her children. Her earlier book is called “Escape”. This is more recent history of the FLDS about the raid on the Texas compound and all the children. Carolyn gives readers a lot of insight into the family and cult dynamics. Children are trained to disrespect and abuse the mothers — and some of the mothers abuse the children. The DNA collected by Children’s Services — highlighted the inbreeding happening at the Texas compound. It doesn’t appear that these children were allow to have a childhood. Girls were for breeding and boys worked as slaves in FLDS construction businesses.

    Both books have a very generous preview on Amazon — so you don’t have to buy the books to get a small insight into the FLDS cult.

    These eye witness accounts by cult members who escaped helps me understand some of the remarks my granddad made about his “priest” father and why my granddad escaped as soon as he could. And this was the plain vanilla LDS church he escaped.
    ——————–

    PTL it is raining in Arizona! Not hard — just steady alternating between rain and snow.

  5. Connie, Orlando's avatar Connie, Orlando says:
    February 15, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    Last night Rachel Maddow predicted that the favorable/unfavorable rankings are going to be a more accurate way of measuring who is going to get the nomination. She showed only Romney’s & highlighted the increased disparity since the caucuses/primaries started. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the lunacy in the Repugs campaigns will energize the Dems & Independents to turn out. I know lots of folks here are/have been set against voting for Obama, but those Repugs scare the crap out of me. My standing joke of many years that I would be burned at the stake is looking like it may become reality based on these theocratic a$$holes.

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