On 2010-08-30, at 2:37 PM, SA wrote:
> If the LBO-Talk People's Action Front got 100,000 to Washington for a rally whose theme was not some pressing single-issue but rather affirmation for a general left-wing ideology, I would say it was a really impressive achievement. That could only happen under conditions where American politics as a whole were shifting pretty sharply to the left. Beck's rally signifies a sharp shift to the right. I didn't buy Chip Berlet's hyperventilating about the TP, but I don't buy this whistle-past-the-graveyard line according to which it's always "pretty clear this thing's shot its wad."
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These mobilizations of the disgruntled rank and file on both the left and the right typically occur in opposition parties in times of crisis and quickly dissipate after they successfully restore their party leaders to power. Two years ago, US politics seemed to be shifting to the left in reaction to the Bush administration. Now it's the Republican ranks who are exercised about Obama, seen as representing the black and brown underclass siphoning off their tax dollars and threatening their traditional white culture. The TP'ers will energetically get out the vote for the Republicans this autumn, and next year this time, we'll be hearing the same disillusioned muttering you hear today among Democrats about having been sold out by their leaders - notably by those insurgent candidates most vociferously promising "change". Like the Democrats also, the restless Republican ranks as yet lack any semblance of an organization or program which would allow them to mount a sustained challenge to their party establishments. The electoral system is an impressive mechanism for containing dissent.