Naiveté Scene
July 8th, 2008 | by Jet Netwal |
Frequently, I’ll come across a comment on a blog or news article where the commenter is obviously a political newbie. “Let’s all boycott so and so, that will get their attention”, or “If Hillary doesn’t win, I’m voting for McCain”, or “Obama betrayed us, he’s moving to the middle”. Reactionary dismay is as good a term as any for it. What it isn’t is politically astute. Like anything, politics has formulaic qualities. However, today’s uniformed commenter is tomorrow’s politically savvy citizen, so while I see things they don’t, I’m glad they are engaging in the conversation.
That line of tolerance stops at pundits.
Pundits are not politically stupid. They see, evaluate, and dissect; it’s not unreasonable to expect they get the game.
Bob Herbert has an article up on the Times site today. He is unhappy with Obama’s tack to the center. It’s too much that Obama is talking to the Fundies, doesn’t despise Scalia, and took a middle position on the FISA snafu (which I agree with him on, but I see the mechanism behind it). He’s claiming the base is in an uproar.
Yawn.
The base is ALWAYS in an uproar post primary. The candidates ALWAYS move to the middle and reach out to the other side pre election. This is how you WIN. Once you win, and hopefully win the down ticket races as well, you get to work and start governing. Then you get to put the real meat on the table, the stuff you think is going to move the country.
Mr. Herbert, et al, do you really think that if George W. Bush, with a full boat congress, didn’t hand the Fundies their platform, that Obama will? Please.
If that’s the case, pick up your pundit toys and go home. We’ve got an election to win.
3 Responses to “Naiveté Scene”
By Steve O on Jul 8, 2008 | Reply
Nicely said Jet. Bush promised the fundies everything under the sun while making fun of them in back rooms of the White House. Rove happens to despise the radical right but knew he needed them to win. The radical evangelicals got nothing in the end except for a spotlight on them that highlighted their nuttyness.
By Craig R. Harmon on Jul 8, 2008 | Reply
Politics is not a matter of finding one’s perfect candidate and electing her; it is a matter of finding the candidate one thinks will advance policy in the direction one wishes it to go and electing her. Few Americans, I think, are truly naive enough to go so far as to actually believe everything a politician on the stump says. Rather, they assess what they think, out of all the promises pols make, said pols will do once in office.
Viewed in this sense, G. W. Bush was the only choice for a fundie vote in 2000 and 2004 and GW actually advanced many policies preferred by fundies. No one is ever going to give them all that they want. I think most of them know that at some level. They go with the pol that they think will do the most for them…just as every other American does.
Good post, Jet!
By Craig R. Harmon on Jul 8, 2008 | Reply
In 2008, Mike Huckabee was that candidate. He didn’t make it but he gave a respectable run.