By Matt Z
This article was first
posted Nov. 5, 2014, on Daily Kos and is
reposted here with the author’s permission.
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Disclaimer:
I am on the spectrum. This is the first diary I have ever
written that is going to be pretty much only political. But I need to let
people know ahead of time that I am not trying to start a flame war. Because of
my Asperger's anytime I get flamed I take it personally and usually wind up in
a deep depression that last days. Please do not flame me for this diary.
But nobody is talking about the real reason we lost the
election. And since nobody else is I'm going to have to be the one to do it. I
might have a bad few days if I accidentally start a flame war. But since nobody
seems to understand WHY we lost the election I have to be the one to point it
out, even if I wind up hurt. I usually only write about mental illness,
cartoons, and Muppets. Pure politics is out of my wheelhouse a bit. I am only
doing so now because I am certain I am right.
_____________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer out of the way? Good. Below the fold I'll tell
you the REAL reason the Dems lost the election. And why both the activists and
pundits trying to analyze the results and figure out what they mean are going
about it all wrong.
Still with me?
Three words: "Two party system."
Yes, last night sucked. But it was SUPPOSED to suck. It is a
two party system. If voters are unhappy with the status quo there is only one
other game in town. It doesn't matter how abhorrent the GOP is, they are the
only alternative. Like Chris Rock said: "Obama didn't cure cancer fast
enough! I'm voting for cancer!"
We can blame the voters if we must. But blaming the Dems for
not being progressive enough? That isn't it at all. For one thing, Obama has
had more fight in him in these past two years than he did for the entirety of
his first term. Every day after 2011, I was worried what he was going to
capitulate to the GOP with next. There was a knot in my stomach every time he
went up against them. These Past two years? Never happened once. Once Obama
trounced Romney he stopped trying to work with the Republicans and started
working around them. Obama is not the problem. If the media reported on his
accomplishments fairly his approval rating would be in the high 60's.
You don't need to play the blame game and talk about how
much the Democrats suck. That's what the Republicans WANT you to think. All
you're doing is playing into their hands and accepting their tiresome version
of the narrative. If we think the Dems are at fault the Republicans have done
their job.
Democrats were always going to get creamed this year and
there was nothing they could have done to prevent it. The GOP basically
destroyed the country and then blamed it on the Dems. And it didn't take a
political genius to do it. It was easy and it worked.
Last night wasn't the end of the world. It was normal. In
2016 when the voters realize the GOP HASN'T fixed their problems, and has
wasted all their time on impeachment proceedings, we'll make gains and get back
the Senate.
And then lose it again in 2018. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
These wild swings from one party to the next between
midterms and Presidential years are going to be the new normal as long as the
country sucks. And since the GOP is MAKING it suck, it's not going to change.
This back and forth is the new normal. Liberals need to understand that and
stop trying to figure out what went wrong. We lost because that is what happens
in a two-party system. There is no need to further analyze it beyond that.
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