Republican Dysfunction - Democrats Self Flagellation (#182)

The Democrats choose to pitch a very public battle with the idea that Special Elections in strongest Republican constituencies are a battle between them, their values and ability to govern (proven in past Democratic administrations), versus Trump, his Administration, and the Republicans, and their current collective inability to govern. The Democrats think that the loud and obvious dysfunction and chaos that has defined the Trump Presidency so far, and the spectacular failures of the Republicans to draft anything resembling a passable policy, is so obvious that the American voters, even in the Republican strongholds, will equally and obviously be so horrified by the ongoing fiasco, that they will surely elect a Democrat just out of sheer revulsion for what’s been happening these past months, especially with healthcare, travel ban, Russia investigations, firing of Jim Comey, and the resulting investigation against the President for possible ‘Obstruction of Justice’.   

Their assumptions have proven wrong time and again, and in this last election in Georgia the Democrats lost again, the fourth time.  What the Democrats don’t realize is that to the Republicans, ideological positions are more important than governance and function, and Adam Smith’s idea of individual responsibility for personal well being, is more important than collective care. Trump’s narcissistic persona fits Republican ideology, and so the current dysfunction is just ‘work-in-progress’, and there isn’t enough anger at Trump to turn them.    

And so the Democrats lose, and the resulting shock amongst them is understandable as the underlying premise on which they base their expectations, going in, is rational, from a global ‘liberal’ point of view, as the rest of the World, which shares their disbelief at the ‘horror show’ that constitutes the Trump Presidency at the present time, can readily attest to.

But, by taking a high profile battle and by making it so symbolic, in a die-hard Republican State, the Democrats risked a demoralizing loss, which is exactly what they got, triggering more self-flagellation. They didn’t learn from Trump during the Campaign, when he prepared for defeat by calling the election rigged, just in case he lost. In Georgia, the Democrats didn’t prepare the ground to limit the political damage in case they lost, they went all in, and came out damaged.

Trump and the Republicans have been so shockingly bad at governing that there should be an almost unanimous ground swell of revolt by the public, even amongst the Republicans, but there isn’t. For a reason that escapes the majority in America, and the rest of the World, the Republicans and those that vote for them, have been mystifyingly tolerant of a Presidency that by all normal standards of performance measures not only fails on just about every score, but in terms of daily behaviour, is jaw-droppingly unacceptable. Republicans tolerate dysfunction well.   

At this time, this is Republican America, and for a very long time, it has been neither rational nor logical, as the past decades have so amply shown. Republican America has indulged in speculative excesses that have led to massive financial crashes that reverberated around the World, in 2000 and again in 2008. It has gone to war on false premises that devastated the Middle East, shattered whole countries, destroyed and displaced millions of lives, and aggravated the global terrorist problems, without admitting any guilt whatsoever for any of it.  

Going back when time began for the Republicans, the ‘Reagan Era’, there have been five (5) Administrations in Office. Three (3) out of those were Republican and therefore the other two (2) were Democrat.

While Ronald Reagan was very likeable personally and in many way a great President, he did come in preaching small government and smaller spending (hand-in-hand) but racked up record deficits, and unleashed upon America and indeed upon the World, the now infamous Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who, is linked to the subsequent destruction of the prudent global financial system through endless liquidity, that led to the speculative bubbles of the ‘dot-com’ era, and the ‘sub-prime credit’ excesses.

So the ‘god’ of the Republicans, the beloved “Gipper”, in spite of personal charm, was of mixed track record in economic terms and set up the stage for the abuses in deregulation and easy money practices that eventually led to the greatest financial crash since the Depression, in 2008.  

The other two Republican Presidents, after Reagan, the two Bush(s) - H. W. Bush and son George W., led America into the Iraq and Afghanistan that arguably became the longest, most expensive and very destructive wars. These wars are still going and still costing human lives, money and international political capital; plus, the never ending Muslim civilian casualties from these endless wars, the destruction of life and property, breeds angry new recruits for old terrorists.

Both the Democrat Presidents during this time frame, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama restored some semblance of economic stability, generally scaled back the foreign misadventures, and acquitted themselves as internationally respected Presidents.  

Without going into any details, it can be safely said that going back all the way to Roosevelt, including Kennedy and Nixon, Democrat Presidents have done well by America and its people, sometimes in the most difficult circumstances, more so than Republican Presidents.  

And certainly now, as compared to Obama, Donald Trump is a brutish, shallow, incompetent boor that has made America a destabilizing outlier to the World, and its Presidency the current everyday comedy show that the World can’t seem to get enough of for entertainment purposes.

Yet, in spite of the glaring mountainous piles of evidence of past and current Republican mistakes, damaging policies, and outright harm to the country and the people, Republicans still vote-in, and support, seemingly blindly, Republican politicians, including Trump.  

And they know how to win crucial elections.  

The Republicans have started costly wars, precipitated even more costly financial crashes, and committed enough internal socio-economic sins that increased social and wealth inequalities, indulged repeatedly in the bailouts of the rich and powerful during full blown economic reversals and recessions, and were the architects of some of the biggest international foreign policy disasters. But they know how to beat the Democrats, regardless, causing the Democrats to helplessly gnash their teeth, and renew, anew, another round of self-flagellation, which is including this time, the calls from some House Democrats for the removal of Nancy Pelosi.