While the Teabaggers, the Birthers, the Deathers, the Tenthers, and all the rest of the dead-enders ranted in and around Town Halls, and some Democratic handwringers were demanding that Obama give up on bipartisanship and take them on head on, and pound on Congress for a Public Option, polls showed approval of Obama and of Health Care slipping. But that reversed in September. Now the Senate looks like it might get serious about a Public Option fairly soon, and the Washington Post reports( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/po ... 01909.html ) that Republican self-identification has dropped from 25% on August 17 to 20% on October 18, with another 19% who say that they are not Republicans, but would vote for one.
I have observed before that Brother Obama never misses a good chance to keep his mouth shut until the right moment to speak, while allowing the opposition to go on cramming its feet into its mouth, and then shooting itself in the foot. This is in accordance with Napoleon's maxim, "Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a grave error." It's nerve-wracking for many supporters, but far worse on the opposition.
Republicans have been progressing through a sequence of clearly distinct stages since the election, including a period of denial, and Just Saying No to begin with. In the summer we saw anger against Obama as the main theme. Now we are seeing the Republican party splitting at the seams.
The defectors do not seem to be going all the way over to the Democrats. Some have certainly taken an Independent stance, many for the first time in their lives. The worst of it, from the Republican point of view, is that the losses are greatest among younger members, who are evidently going to raise their children as Secular Humanists and Socialists.
What is most fascinating is the number of Republicans splitting from the furthest Right margins of the party. We see this among Teabaggers putting up ideologically pure candidates for Republican primaries to challenge "moderate" incumbents. They may well beat the party candidates in some races, but if so they will almost certainly fail in the general elections. More surprisingly, in Nevada the Republicans are reportedly running fourth, after Democrats, Independents, and the farther than far Right Independent American Party, whose site has to be seen to be believed. At the same time, the Republican party has been whistling past its own graveyard, claiming that its candidates are set up for huge gains in next year's mid-term elections, and bragging about what they will do when they take back Congress.
Now we can assume that some of this talk is coming from lying politicians, just because so much of it comes from politicians. But it is clear that many people believe what they hear. Why? It is called Cognitive Dissonance. When reality contradicts your most cherished beliefs, you will try to find reasons to hold onto them up to some point, at which you have to go through a wrenching readjustment. The more you have had your opinions pounded into you earlier in life, the longer you will hold on, and the more convoluted your rationalizations are likely to be. When something does give, it will be all the more wrenching and disorienting.
On the other hand, the Democratic hand-wringing is exactly the same as what we saw last year at every blip in the polls for McCain and Palin. Yes, the Republicans got a convention bounce with Palin, but then their standing slipped steadily for nearly two months straight as the country found out more and more about her. Similarly, there are blips in the polls this year over health care and other issues, and Democrats fret that we are going to lose it all. I don't think so now, any more than I did then. Every time the Republicans get a bright idea for red meat for the base, they drive the wedges further into both flanks of the party.
The last word on these Republicans travails should go to someone they still think of as their hero, the "Father of Conservatism" Edmund Burke. During the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings, he nailed it just as well for today as for then.
Resolved to die in the last dike of prevarication.
