Stupid Versus Evil

"What we have to do is earn the public approval of our right to govern again," said Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean." (emphasis added)

With ammunition like that you'd think the republicans (i.e. the Stupid Party) would have it easy against the democrats (i.e. the Evil Party), but that's not the case.

"Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president"

"Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress."

"A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That's the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power."

& to counter Dean's quote the republicans present for your amusement McCain:

"I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government."

The republicans are in trouble (Hugh Hewitt is a very staunch supporter of republicans generally, but even he's getting a little aggravated at their actions.). So what do you think they'll do? Well since the base isn't happy with them of course they'll try to swing in more votes from the opposition by supporting moderate to left leaning proposals. I'd tell you that gun control was possibly on the agenda but Uncle beat me to it.

What else could they do? That's easy; if they started acting like they had a sense of direction & that direction was geared towards national security, individual freedom & smaller government then they'd have enough of their base show up to stay in power.

For example:

Bush calls up the militia to patrol the u.S.-Mexico border until a fence can be erected.

Bush announces that by mid August he'll have a plan for implementing either a flat tax or (preferably) the Fairtax to completely replace the current progressive income theft, er tax (& he should say it just like that).

Bush orders the TSA to come up with a more streamlined plan for arming pilots to be implemented staring this coming Monday.

Bush invites Michael Yon to explain the situation in Iraq (as well as Afghanistan) via a nationally televised Q&A session.

In that same session he invites a real economist to explain that there is no such thing as price gouging.

Bush tells congress in no uncertain terms that bullshit like this will be vetoed if they think about over-riding his decision to personally bitch-slap the folks who thought it was a good idea.

The majority leaders in the house & senate start acting like they have a majority.

The republican party works out a system to hold primaries for races where a RINO (such as McCain, Spector, etc...) is the incumbent.

Republican leaders in general start pointing out that the appeasement/socialism of the far left will do us all much more harm than good. In that many words.

Those things could turn it around for the GOP. Even a few of those things coupled with a sense of direction could probably squeak them by. Of course I'd like to say it'd be a nice touch if Bush were to call for the end of prior restraint based gun control laws in general but a simple gesture like more armed pilots (with less asinine requirements & conditions) coupled with just saying he thinks people who are comfortable with it should be armed whenever they can would be enough to satisfy most gun owners. Then again telling the truth about the most effective deterrent to certain kinds of terrorism would help him more than hurt him. (link via the darling yet deadly miss Nicki)

But they won't touch any of those things. What will happen is that die-hard republican supporters such as Hewitt will urge people to hold their noses & vote for anyone with an "R" beside their name because the alternative is worse. & in the short term he may be right. But with no promise of long term reform a lot of conservatives would feel as if they're rewarding bad behavior & just sit this one out.

Bush & the current crop of republicans are in love with the idea of power. They also seem to think that bigger government is okay when they're in control. The "who else are they gonna vote for?" attitude seems to be alleviating any fears of repercussions for their actions.

For the republicans it means that they'll screw things up with the result being losing more seats in congress. For us it may mean that some form of gun control gets a shot at becoming law. I don't know of anything in particular but since Bush was in love with the "assault weapons" ban an attempt at renewing that isn't out of the question. Then again I wouldn't be surprised to see something new & novel, like gun-free oxygen zones or something equally as stupid yet transparent. Whatever is attempted will probably have at least some republican support, if not enough to pass enough to come real close.

I'm just wondering where does "stupid" cross the line into being just as dangerous as "evil"? I'm afraid I probably won't have to wonder that long.

Posted by Publicola at May 5, 2006 07:31 AM | TrackBack