Republican Tsunami or Cosmic Realignment?

by Judith Gayle | Political Waves

“So the Dems lost their house,” tweeted Peter Daou, exemplifying the cynicism of the moment. “Who in America hasn’t?”

If you want to know why things went so badly on Tuesday, read that again.

In the kind of Dixicratic tantrum we’ve seen too much of lately, old, white and conservative Americans evidenced their displeasure at change of any kind, and ended up sweeping the tense, the disenchanted and the simplistic along with them. So ends a mid-term election that by all accounts was less sane and more vitriolic than any in decades, and certainly a Rorschach of the panic and confusion out here in the trenches. What? You didn’t notice this was the crazy season? Carl Paladino, Bagger running for governor of New York, carried his Louisville Slugger with him during his concession speech, caressing it and giving everyone another reason to be grateful that Cuomo won. Enough said.

This was a shocking election, not for the expected Democratic loss so much as a series of firsts we have yet to fully appreciate. We already know about the extraordinary amounts of untracked corporate money that put the election on the auction block. Ideologically, Tea Party rage is “… one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen and the biggest Astroturf operation in history,” as the Guardian’s George Monbiot wrote in an article titled I’m Done Making Excuses for the Electorate. Is This a Nation of Fools? No populist explosion, the Bagger movement was carefully orchestrated by big money and invisible corporate presence.

Evidence also shows that, skidding along on those huge amounts of cash, we have almost fully privatized our election cycles making the democratic process a commodity. Indeed, Bloomberg reports that the GOP has already received its marching orders from Wall Street, including “lowering taxes for wealthy individuals and for businesses, repealing environmental protections and paring down health care reform.” It would not be surprising if the heading on that memo read: Please Pay In Full. The disturbing amount of money spent this year exposed our belief that capitalism can do no wrong and corporatism is necessary. We have yet to squarely face the ramifications of that failed mythology, but it’s beginning to sink in to public consciousness.

Disruptive extremism marks this political era just as purity issues dominated this election. Fully half of the dreaded Blue Dogs — moderate Dems who held the progressive agenda hostage, weakening each piece of legislation passed during the last two years — were not pure enough conservatives and lost their jobs to real Republicans. Rand Paul won in Kentucky despite his many gaffes, and Baggers did well, overall. They weren’t successful on every front, however, and their women took a drubbing. Sharon Angle in Nevada had to ‘man up’ to her loss against Senate Speaker Harry Reid, although she seems nutty enough to find a home somewhere in cyberspace; one blogger suggests we’ll soon see the Sharon Angle Screams At Traffic hour on FOX News. Christine O’Donnell could co-host, because, sadly, she is not a witch nor, happily, a new Senator. California threw their big-spending women candidates on the scrap heap, as well.

With the Baggers’ help, the Republicans have gained the House, and will set the legislative agenda for the next two years. John Boehner, probable Majority House Leader, refuses to get specific about plans, insisting only that his party will “listen to the will of the American people.” Along with that generic euphemism, he promises to limit government and taxes as well as turn back health care. And although the Pubs were warned not to be too snarky, shoving their unlikely win in the public’s face, Sarah Palin prefers the newer Republican thought. Slice and dice, says Ms. Palin, who — along with Christocrat, Mike Huckabee — remains a 2012 presidential favorite with right-leaning voters, if not mainstream Republicans.

“We the people, we’re gonna be in control and we’re not sheep and they can’t railroad us anymore, and, you know, we are their bosses, ” insists Ms. Palin. “And the GOP has to understand that — the machine has to understand that — we’re not sending Republicans, commonsense conservatives, to Washington to sing Kumbaya with Obama, we’re sending them to stop Obama.” And that is their primary objective, according to GOP leadership.

Spinning madly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insists this voting result validates the Republican policy of obstruction, even as 70-odd percent of the nation demands results from Congress rather than gridlock. Another poll indicates that a similar number of people did NOT want Republicans to win this election, but expected them to gain control of the House. We walked into this buzz saw with eyes wide open, didn’t we?

Nearly as many expect to be disappointed with how the GOP performs by the time the 2012 election rolls around. That’s the rainbow hidden in these dark clouds. The nonsense that the GOP will do anything differently from what they did during the Bush years should be dead and moldering by then. This was an anti-establishment  election, an illogical attempt to throw the experienced out and replace them with the untried, idealistic and naive. Am I the only one that finds it worrisome to depend on junior politicians in the middle of a massive government meltdown? Feels like amateur hour, to me.

The actual mandate is jobs, jobs, jobs, complicated by insecurity, apprehension, and fear. The nation disapproves both parties and doesn’t trust either. They threw the bums out this election, put a bunch of political neophytes in place, and vented their spleen in an anti-incumbent rout. They wanted change, but not the kind that shakes the foundations of their world. While that wasn’t Obama’s fault or the Dems’, it’s easier to move back into what they know than embrace what they don’t. What they know is manipulation by a corporate America that has convinced them that there is no alternative reality. Add that we were subjected to a staggeringly well-funded disinformation campaign, and that polls showed most voters got all their fiscal facts wrong as they ran to the voting booth to punish the party in power. Obama is being flogged not for what he accomplished, but for what he didn’t.

Doing a presser on the Republican win, the President spoke of hope for civility and progress. Reporters hammered him on who actually speaks for Americans, the Red or the Blue. I was pleased that he didn’t bow to the meme that progressive change was being rejected and, frankly, annoyed at the tone of the questions. Those who insist that this election cycle indicates a Republican mandate are dead wrong. The Republican base voted for this mayhem because this is THEIR idea of change they can believe in — for awhile, anyhow. They suffer under the delusion that the GOP cares about their wellbeing. With nothing to bring to this moment, no plan for jobs or governing, the GOP will finally have to own their little piece of Bush’s folly. We should ALL be more than ready for real, authentic change by the time 2012 rolls along.

Students of astrology know how cycles work, how they build, one on another. As patterns repeat, they don’t close doors; they go forward, opening new options and ways to re-experience old energies. Patterns are for self-discovery and the forward motion of evolvement. As well, students of spirituality acknowledge that the heady energies of this moment are leading us toward a perceptual shift in every aspect of being.

While the Republicans are trying to make this into a tsunami of demand for their leadership and the trouncing of liberals, this is most surely a more cosmic event. Whatever all this means, it’s [w]holistic to the changes ahead and calculated to bring us to awareness and balance, to prepare us, in some unknown measure, for the future. We must allow ourselves to feel the losses without stepping away from our commitment to do what’s right, what’s just and what’s necessary to usher in a new era.