Don't Blame Me. I Voted Against Kang!

David Weigel | October 20, 2006

National Journal is pushing its latest (maybe last before the election) "Insider Poll" of Capitol Hill staff and political consultants. The question: "What issue will most motivate your party's base in the midterm elections?" The answer: Absolutely everything except their own party's appeal.

For Republicans, 47 percent say "fear of a Democratic majority" (Speaker Pelosi! Majority Leader Murtha! House Chaplain Cindy Sheehan!) will turn out their coalition of Angry White Men And A Black Guy. Thirty-five percent say the war on terrorism'll do it - hence the Shitty Daisy Ad. Absolutely no one claims that the GOP's record will turn the base out, although between two and 15 percent claim some combination of pushing tax cuts and social issues will do it.

The Democrats' platform is even shakier. Only one percent say the party's agenda will get voters to the polls. Ninety-one percent say Iraq and hatred of Bush will turn Daily Kos readers into gung-ho voters and phone bankers. ("Good evening. I'm calling to make sure you can come to the Jennifer Granholm rally outside the abandoned steel mill on Saturday.")

Comments

|10.20.06 @ 3:06PM|#

The alien with the bullhorn is either Kang or Konos from a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. Both aliens were running against each other for President of the USA, and each promised to enslave humanity if elected. Kang (I think) won by a landslide and enslaved humanity. Homer said, "Don't blame me, I voted for Konos." Ain't it the truth.

Dan T.|10.20.06 @ 3:22PM|#

Recall that Kang and Kodos took the likenesses of Bob Dole and Bill Clinton...when a voter suggesting going with a third party, they laughed and said "Go ahead...throw away your vote!"

|10.20.06 @ 3:35PM|#

It's perectly respectable for an opposition party to work to make the election a referendum on the majority. The incumbants control of the government determines which issues get onto the agenda, and they put forth the only set of policies that the public can really make a judgement about.

But when an incumbant party has to make the election about the minority party, it betrays a real lack of confidence in their own beliefs and accomplishments.

The Republicans could be talking about their accomplishments over the past few years, but they're not. You know why? Because their accomplishments have been disasters.

|10.20.06 @ 3:50PM|#

Joe,

Your quote below pretty accurately describes the problem the rebublicans are having with their base.

"The Republicans could be talking about their accomplishments over the past few years, but they're not. You know why? Because their accomplishments have been disasters."

Constantly saying the other guy is worse is a very poor way manage a political party. Given their performance that is about all the republicans can do now since they have stiffed the conservative base on most issues that are important to them.

|10.20.06 @ 3:51PM|#

Lately, politics has me thinking more & more of Dead Kennedys. Perfect example: "Good evening. I'm calling to make sure you can come to the Jennifer Granholm rally outside the abandoned steel mill on Saturday." reminds me of "California Uber Alles."

Now it is 1984
Knock knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

The complete lyrics to "Stars & Stripes of Corruption" seem eerily appropriate right now
(and certain parts actually pretty libertarian, although probably anarchist:

I'm thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I'm on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws)

|10.20.06 @ 4:23PM|#

This article doesn't surpise me. Been saying this for years. We no longer vote for the best person/party anymore, we now vote for who we think is going to suck less than the other guy.

Democrats will win and take over the House and possibly the Senate. Their win will come not because they offered something that voters wanted, their win will come because they suck less than the Republicans.

Gimme Back My Dog|10.20.06 @ 5:02PM|#

Buckshot,

Thanks for explaining that to us all. If Joe Mathlete from Joe Mathlete explains today's Marmaduke in 500 words or less ever retires, you should be next in line.

Dan T,

That was the best line of the show. Would have been cooler if the angry reaction shot was the libertarian candidate instead of Ross Perot.

Rogus,

Or, more accurately, everyone's memory of how the Democrats sucked has faded a little.

|10.20.06 @ 5:13PM|#

I kind of wonder what will change (not saying this cynically, I really would like to know) about current US policy if the democrats take control of one or both houses. I suppose though that this is not even the right question to ask since what really matters is which individuals are elected and what policies they support.

I doubt things will change much in Iraq until 2009 when a new president takes office. Most likely whoever wins will be under tremendous pressure to pull out during his/her 1st term.

I am disappointed that the issue of due process for persons detained in connection with counter-terrorism is not playing a more significant role. If I understand the situation correctly, the government is now claiming the right to hold someone indefinitely as an alleged enemy combatant; without charges, without allowing the person to contest that status, and without having a clear reasonably likely set of circumstances that will constitute the end of hostilities with that person's alleged combat organization.

Am I missing something about this? Does this apply only to people known to have been captured on a battlefield? What about those captured under murky circumstances (eg: by a bounty hunter with questionable credibility)? Those arrested somewhere besides Iraq and Afganistan with alleged terrorist connections?

If my understanding of this is reasonably accurate than this is one of the most important issues congress has recently voted on. Does anyone see any evidence that it will have any bearing on any elections this year?

|10.20.06 @ 5:26PM|#

I voted for Kodos. . .the Executioner! He had plans! Vision!

The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.

The Wine Commonsewer|10.20.06 @ 5:46PM|#

That Pot thread is dead so, here's an out of sequence comment (not a threadjack)

Bee, yes, the OC Register has a forthright libertarian op-ed page. Alan Bock (see antiwar.com) is one of the three opinion masters over there. In fact, OCR has always been libertarian, even before there was such a thing.

Gimme my dog, The OC still has a pretty libertarian leaning former anarcho-capitalist and friend-of-Reason in Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. He ain't perfect, but he got high marks for spending restraint.

|10.20.06 @ 6:00PM|#

Now I'm no libertarian, but I do think that if Democrats come out and itemize the social programs that the 'fiscal conservatives' (outside Libertarian circles, of course) claim to oppose, I think that would certainly switch some of these voters from Republican to Democratic lines. You often hear "stop entitlements!", but not so much of "stop subsidizing emergency room operations!" from these Republican voting 'fiscal conservatives' (again, outside Liberarian circles of course). So their quasi-fiscal conservatism would not continue to be a Republican stable.

|10.20.06 @ 6:31PM|#

TJIT,

"Constantly saying the other guy is worse is a very poor way manage a political party. Given their performance that is about all the republicans can do now since they have stiffed the conservative base on most issues that are important to them."

Yes, but...

Given the Republicans' performance, that is about all the Democrats are doing now, as well.

The suckiness of Republican governance has captured our political discourse. It is the central issue of the campaign, and is driving how everything else is viewed.

Remember "BDS?" Anger, loathing, and disgust for the administration? It was derided, and then vociferously attacked, as an insane, radical indulgence. Well today, that phenomenon has grown to encompass the entirety of Republican leadership nationwide and in many states, and has become the most powerful political force in the country.

The question is how long it will last. How long did people stay mad at Hoover?

|10.20.06 @ 6:31PM|#

Gimme Back My Dog:

I'm, just trying to have fun, not explain anything.

|10.20.06 @ 7:05PM|#

GBMD:

You complimented Dan T for almost the same thing you took a shot at me for. I didn't make a 500 word explaination of something that was obvious and I'm not next in line for anything.

|10.20.06 @ 7:08PM|#

Actually, the best line is...

Kang: Abortions for all!
Crowd: BOOOOO!
Kang: Fine, no abortions for anyone!
Crowd: BOOOOO!
Kang: Hmmmm, abortions for some, tiny american flags for others!
Crowd: YAAAAAAAY!

|10.20.06 @ 8:02PM|#

i wont expect any sort of real investigations into Iraq by Dims. Why? Because they want to preserve the option (crackpot war-for-profit) for themselves. Remember Iran/Contra? You wernt going to get a REAL dig into the what happened there......like Viet Nam, the Latin American butchery was bi partisan. A buck to be made. Power to assume. Peasants to terrorize.
I want to see the Rethugs reduced to a minority. I DONT want to see Dimbulbcrats as a majority. If they squeek by & take the house & Senate, or send the Rethugs scattering like the nitwit chickenhawks they are, somehow, this will "prove" "America" wants what they euphamize as "gun control", and free Priuses for illegal aliens, and the cop under my bed looking if Im smoking/fucking someone/thing I shouldnt retasked to see if Im saying/thinking/owning something I shouldnt.
Bah. Throw the creeps out, long live the creeps......

|10.22.06 @ 7:48PM|#

I remember a year ago (or two, or even three) the 'Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos' line was the subject of one out of every ten or so posts, or at least it seemed so to me.

|10.22.06 @ 9:36PM|#

Kodos would have been worse

|10.23.06 @ 6:13AM|#

Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV, is....was... will be?... a badass, but he can't hold a flaming-hot branding iron to Kang the Conquerer!

Kevin

|10.23.06 @ 10:35AM|#

Comic book Kang? Pshaw. Kang of the Klingon Empire laughs at your suggestion. He accomplished/will accomplish such great exploits that he is the subject of a Klingon epic. Or will be:

"So honor the valiant who die 'neath your sword, But pity the warrior who slays all his foes."