The Blame

As my last post shows, I think, my thoughts are taking me in different directions.  On the one hand, the ability of the Republicans to gain political advantage by sabotaging the United States is disgusting.  On the other hand, all of these tactics would be far less effective if the Democratic agenda were popular.  In democratic politics you just can't expect to stay in power if you can't command popular support.  On the third hand, the popularity of the Democratic agenda is to a large degree a superficial judgment that has little to do with the substance of the policies and much to do with a perception of weakness and incompetence, so we are back to the first point.  (So for instance, in the abstract you might think that the popularity of Obamacare would be decided "on the merits."  But in fact, I would bet that a fair amount of its unpopularity has to do with its disastrous rollout and the accompanying media circus.)

I guess basically these thoughts are not in so much tension as it first appears.  Basically:  Republicans are abhorrent, but there's only so much you can do given the way voters see the world.  American politics are probably going to be ugly so long as whites can be mobilized around Republican policies.  Maybe I'll write a post on alternative coalitions that I would like to see emerge.