On 2010-09-30, at 7:26 PM, dredmond at efn.org wrote:
> On Wed, September 29, 2010 3:34 pm, Shane Mage wrote:
>
>> Your vote for and present extenuation of Obama are alike based on
>> supposition: that the alternatives would be noticeably worse.
>
> The alternative was worse. A McCain Presidency = no StimPak, economic
> freefall, no moves towards a multipolar world, and at least two new
> imperial wars (one against Iran, one against a democratic state, Russia).
> In response, the BRICs would've stopped buying T-bills in December 2008
> and all geopolitical hell would be loose.
You're kidding, right? McCain was going to go way beyond the Bush administration and open up two more military fronts? Against Iran and a nuclear-armed Russia, no less? I don't think so.
Actually, if McCain-Palin had been elected in 2008 and forced to preside over an even deeper downturn as you suggest, the left would not now be bemoaning the rise of the tea party and the dispirited response to the crisis of trade unionists, non-white minorities, university students and other core constituencies of the Democrats. On the contrary, a McCain presidency would have intensified the anger and energy in Democratic ranks unleashed by the Bush administration, and it would now be Republicans dismayed by its failure to create jobs who would be staying home, with independent voters moving to the Democrats.
It's typical in two-party electoral systems for voters to turn against incumbent governments of the right or left for failing to promote economic recovery as job losses mount. The masses have an exaggerated sense of the willingness and ability of the major parties to control economic developments, an illusion promoted by these parties while in opposition. It's typical also for culturally as well as economically whites to direct most of their anger against immigrants, an easier target than bankers.
Consequently, I don't make as much as others do of the political lurch to the right in American (and European) politics we've seen over the past two years. In the US, it's as likely as not that the expectations of the tea party faithful will be dashed and their energies dissipated once it becomes clear that a Republican-controlled Congress is no less able to create jobs and otherwise deliver on its exaggerated promises to its base than the Obama adminstration in relation to its own.