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It’s traditional at this time of year to write thoughtful reviews of the events of the last twelve months, particularly among those of us who don’t have the week off and don’t have a lot of news to write about. But you know what? Having lived through this tense and exhausting year, I just don’t feel up to any BigThink about its place in the grand sweep of American or world history. Maybe that will change when 2011 is finally receding in the rear-view window and I can muster some optimism about 2012.
Personally, I’ve spent most of this last year obsessively writing about the Republican presidential nominating contest. In part that’s because this was my “beat” for The New Republic and the Progressive Policy Institute, but also because I have long been convinced that the craziness of today’s GOP provides the only hope for Barack Obama’s re-election, and thus the tale of the primary battle may well be the tale of the entire cycle. The “invisible primary” that will end next Tuesday has taught us nearly as much about the pathologies of the contemporary Right as the behavior of congressional Republicans. The GOP—not just the Tea Party movement, but pretty much the entire party—is caught in the grip of multiples delusions, including a neo-Hooverism that is hard to take seriously as economic policy, and political theories that defy everything we know about the views of the American people.
It is fashionable, and occasionally useful, to focus on the political strategies of the Obama White House and blame them for the catastrophe that could occur next November. But the sad truth is we won’t really know how smart or stupid the president’s team has been until much later in the cycle; they are playing a long, long game, and it’s unclear where it will eventually lead.
Did anything really new and positive happen this year? We don’t know yet what’s going to happen next to the economy—or at least I have little idea. The state-level battles in Wisconsin and Ohio were quite promising, if only because they showed the labor movement still has some serious fight in it even when other progressives despair. And though I’m ambivalent about the staying power of the Occupy movement, there is zero question it has forced Americans—and not just Americans—think about the concentrations of wealth that have been the overriding economic trend throughout the last decade, long before the recent financial collapse.
All in all, it was a transitional year, but we don’t really know what we are transitioning towards. So raise a glass on New Year’s Eve to your hopes for better times—and give your fears a holiday.
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DAY on December 30, 2011 3:45 PM:
As this may be your last post as our oxymoronic "Guest Host", let me say well done, Sir, and come back again, when our comfortable old sweater decides to take another time out.
chi res on December 30, 2011 3:45 PM:
So raise a glass on New Year’s Eve to your hopes for better times—and give your fears a holiday.
Excellent advice, and I will do so.
Thanks for your work here, Ed; I'll look you up elsewhere as well.
Happy New Year to All!
Ron Byers on December 30, 2011 4:17 PM:
Did anything happen this year? The weather was really warm. Here it is the end of December and winter hasn't really started here in Kansas City. I was talking about this being the hottest year on record today at our firm meeting, and my partner looked at me and said "until next year." I realized he is right and that global warming is real. I also realized we aren't doing a damn thing about it, and won't as long as the oil companies run the government and their disinformation campaign remains in place. This is the year I truly realized that my kids and grandkids are going to live in a really tough world. They aren't going to do as well as I did.
This is the first full on campaign after Citizens United and I realized that those oversized "people" called corporations are totally in charge of America.
gus on December 30, 2011 4:20 PM:
“....because I have long been convinced that the craziness of today’s GOP provides the only hope for Barack Obama’s re-election, and thus the tale of the primary battle may well be the tale of the entire cycle.”
Yeah. That’s been what I’ve pinned hopes on, too.
In fairness, I have thought the same thing since 2004...it just took a while to bear fruit.
When it comes to politics now, there’s a sense of desperation in the air. Like people are manically swatting at invisible flies as they rationalize anything. Then when the dust finally settles, often sooner than later, maybe...maybe smart people begin to wise up. Maybe. But, the smart people need to be more than pundits. The voters need to stop embracing craziness as legitimate.
James on December 30, 2011 4:35 PM:
Ed, I too have appreciated your time here filling Steve's shoes.
Here's a plea for you for the year ahead. Please, it is time that the Democrats get serious about their message management. Take some lessons from the right-- their ability to manage their message and steer the national conversation is superb -- it's one of the few things they do very, very well. The Dems are completely inept on the most basic level about how to manage their media relations.
I'm talking about such basics as answering journalists' emails and phone calls in a respectable time frame, having useful quotes available, training spox in basic camera-friendly techniques INCLUDING attire and makeup. Making sure that every political journo has a Dem story to write about every day. Making sure they have quotable experts from your side at the ready. Lobby to appear on *every* *single* Sunday talk show *every* *single* week.
The incompetence of the Dems at media management now, here, in 2012 is inexcuseable. And for crissakes, get a couple of liberals at the table. Give progressives a shot at the media spotlight. No, not DFH, not disgruntled Naderites, not Greens, but respectable Dems. Train them to look good on camera. Train them to articulate the message. We've been winging it and it hasn't looked good but your organization can help with that.
Look how popular Elizabeth Warren is. She's progressive, and is very good on camera and articulates the message almost flawlessly. People are hungry for that message, well delivered. There are a lot of people out here like her, silenced by the embarrassing likes of Carville and Lieberman. Dinosaurs. And I wish labor would get the same message. Chuck the hideous T-shirts, put on a suit and tie, and make the damn case that working men and women are better off when they are able to bargain collectively for better wages and safe working conditions.
What's so hard about that?
Cybrguy on December 30, 2011 5:34 PM:
What so hard about it is fairly obvious. The republicans are a fairly homogeneous group of white guys (and gals) who are almost invariably anti-choice, anti Muslim (or most minorities), anti-union and pro corporation. The Democrats are "everybody else". It is much easier to "stay on message" when the message is simple and direct and discourages thinking and analysis.
Being republican allows you to turn your brain off. Being a Democrat require you to turn your brain on. I'm not saying that it is impossible to work together as Democrats, it is just much harder, and greater effort is required...
James on December 30, 2011 6:01 PM:
@cybrguy:
What you say may or may not be true, but it's pretty irrelevant. It's no excuse either.
You talk to reporters that cover Congress, on the R side, they get answers to questions within 15 minutes, their spox is authorized to state policy positions, answer questions, provide sources, good usable quotes. *Every one of them.* On the other side, a journo can wait 5-6 hours to get an answer from the Dem staff. Sometimes they *never* get a response. They are not authorized to state policy positions. And their principal usually will not comment on an issue that he/she isn't directly involved. Mind you, journos have at least 2 deadlines per day. Wire reporters have 5 or more deadlines a day. So they need material. The Rs provide them with copious material, good stories and quotes, and answer their questions. The leadership does two or more pressers a day. Meanwhile the Dems are sitting around with their thumbs up their ass. Complaining about lack of coverage.
I'm describing reality as told to me by more than one honest, hardworking journo. So you can wave your arms in moral outrage all you want, and rail and moan about philosophical questions and shortcomings of the political press. But the Dem's incompetence on this fact of political life is simply inexcusable.
It isn't just Congress. WHY don't the Dems have someone available for EVERY Sunday talk show? It isn't some deep dark conspiracy. It's because the Dems are incompetent. They never have anyone readily available. Krugman can't do it all. They never train anyone on being camera-ready with a good, sharp message. They should lobby to be on *every* show. And have someone in a suit to do it.
Screw that "Dems are everybody else" crap. Who cares? National politics is the Big Time, and the Dems need to polish their strategy to become at least marginally effective. So far, they have failed on this badly.
Doug on December 30, 2011 6:32 PM:
Sorry James, but your cavalier dismissal of Cybrguy's point only displays YOUR lack of knowledge.
Theoretically, every Democrat should be on the same page on any given Democratic policy. Theoretically. But if you don't know that's not the way it is, then you're demonstrating some incredible ignorance. I can imagine several very valid reason for individual Democrats NOT answeing "policy"-themed questions. Trying to maintain party unity is one.
Then there's the fact that, if "journos" covering the Democratic side of politics in DC already know individual Democrats don't comment on "policy", WHY do they continue to call? Is it really that Democrats "are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses" or is that Democrats aren't playing the "journos" game? It sounds to me more likely it's the latter, with the "journos" merely going after another "he said/he replied" quote, rather than, you know, actually doing THEIR job. Two very different things, you know.
I also find it very hard to believe that comments can't be gotten from Wasserman-Brown's office or Pelosi's or Reid's. After all, one major part of being Minority or Majority Leader IS to make, and comment, on policy. Even should all you say be true, which I doubt, if the story is important, there's this thing called the "internet" which allows people to view things called "sites". I bet those "journos" could find all the information they need there. Unless, of course, their "job" is to produce "equivalency".
In wich case, why SHOULD Democrats help them?
KurtRexCooper on December 30, 2011 7:41 PM:
Yes, the best political thing that happened this year was the recall of Russell Pearce the author, w the prison industry, of AZ SB1070. Seems even the very conservative voters of Mesa AZ are not so conservative as to endorse a racist once again.
MNRD on December 31, 2011 1:29 AM:
It is not this President's fault that he has been subjected to the most intransigent opposition faction since the Confederacy. That is simply a big part of the situation that he inherited.
You cannot separate what these Republicans have done to make this President highly vulnerable from what they have done to severely damage their own brand. It is one and the same thing. Considering the mess that this President inherited and considering the kinds of checks and balances that exist in our system of government, an opposition party that behaved as subversively as these Republicans have behaved was going to make this President highly vulnerable. Fortunately, in the process they've made themselves even more vulnerable.