Abandon hope?

Tony Norman, a true believer in the Democrats, feels the searing pain of betrayal and doubt:

Last year, after the Democrats took Congress, who would have expected the party's standard-bearers to become so craven?

If someone had said a year ago that Americans would still be tolerating two wars with an estimated price tag of $2 trillion and no good outcome guaranteed, wouldn't that have generated gasps of indignation? What self-respecting majority party would allow that to happen? ...

If someone told us that a year after Democrats took over the Senate Judiciary Committee, two Democrats would cast the votes allowing a candidate for U.S. attorney general who doesn't know whether waterboarding is torture to move forward, would we have believed it? ...

When I wrote that column celebrating the Democratic takeover last year, I truly believed substituting one party for another would make a difference. Because of the cowardice -- excuse me -- "pragmatism" of the Democratic Party leadership, nothing has changed when it comes to the war.

You laugh, but at least he's coming around--right?  Illusions have been shattered, and that's a good thing--isn't it?  Well, yes, as far as it goes.  But let's see how he plans to respond to the serial disappointments he's suffered at the hands of this craven, credulity-confounding, cowardly party:

After the 2008 election, it may be time to give the Greens or another third party a serious look. I'm tired of these damn Democrats.

This would normally be the point at which I'd put my head in my hands and weep inconsolably.  But in this case, maybe not.  As mind-numbing as it is to see someone preparing to plant their open palm on the flaming stove for the sixteenth time, this is still a Democrat mentioning the Green Party not only without throwing a tantrum, but with actual interest.  It may be a baby step, but it's still a step.

And who knows?  There's still a year left before the election.  Maybe with a few more crushing disillusionments--and we all know they're coming--he'll follow through on his threat, or even dump the Democrats before 2008 rather than after.

I can dream, can't I?

Comments

[Scruggs]

I may be awfully cynical, but I see the public acknowledgment of betrayal and tantrum-free mention of the Greens as a bad sign. The pundit peeps do that occasionally to keep the more perspicacious members of their audience engaged -- especially when dissonance crescendos. The next step is discovering that some Greens are seriously flawed. Oh, the humanity! This gives room for his alpha consumers to chide him gently for failing to realize that. He writes an 'aw shucks, guys, I guess you're right' column, which is followed by a sadder and wiser retreat to the familiar, comforting, treacherous fautities of the Democrats. Then pundit and audience raise their voices in song on their way to the stove, all of them.

. . . except for a couple of audience members who are laughing too hard at the idiocy of treating second degree with third degree burns. It does happen.

[John Caruso]

That's impressively cynical, alright. I don't get the sense that he's anything but sincere in the article--if anything, he doesn't strike me as having the smarts or sophistication to be otherwise (as you'll see if you read the original article he references as well). This is a guy who thought "Say it loud: I'm a Democrat and I'm proud" was a good joke, after all. His punditry, such as it is, is clearly third string. But I also have little doubt that he'll back down once the stark reality of voting for anyone other than the Democrats is staring him in the face.

Then again, I used to vote for Democrats too. Everyone's got to start somewhere. So what the hell--I'll treat it as a good sign and hope for the best.

[Scruggs]

I see your points about him. It's likely, then, that I mistook a blip in perseveration for a manipulative strategy.

I think you can hope for something. Over the years, it's been writing like yours that has let me laugh my way out of my own idiocies. Nothing else would have done it.

[John Caruso]

Thanks--I really appreciate the appreciation.