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.