Tuesday, November 22, 2016

 

Deja Vu All Over Again

I didn't vote for Ronald Reagan either time he ran. I knew he had been Governor of California but he was in my mind primarily an actor and not very good an actor at that. I told my Republican friends I voted third party because I had seen too many of Reagan's movies. He won in landslides despite my non-support. No one cared about my protest vote. Yet, I never voted third party (i.e., wasted my vote) again. You live, you learn, as Alanis sings.

But I did the right thing this time to oppose the political horror another Clinton would have been. (When I explain it thus: I thought we ought to have new candidates, no more Bushes or Clintons, even Democrats nod their heads in agreement).

So what's up now? As reluctant as I was to vote for the braggadocious, faux Republican candidate, most of the Democrat reaction to reality since the election has made me feel ever better about that choice. The Democrats have, on the whole, been complete dicks about the election results. Good guys like Paul Mirengoff are telling us that we may have to disassociate with those on the left for a long time if not forever. That's really sad. I am not going to buy the products or attend the art of the worst lefty dicks out there, as I said here. I might even have to abandon some especially dickish former friends. But I thought when I wrote those comments, that I was nearly alone in my decision. But now I see it is a common Republican reaction to the cry-baby left predicting doom and despair with a lot of Big Lies thrown in. The worst case scenario of enough of us withdrawing from the left as much as possible is a civil war at some level (best case scenario of this worst case scenario is a cold civil war). No sane person wants that.

Anyway, I'm also picking up some strong feelings of deja vu going back to the transition period of Reagan. As he made good choice after good choice after his election, I began to wonder if my reservations about him were overblown. I also noticed that the left was absolutely bonkers about the "danger" Reagan held for the world. They lied a lot about him. I'm getting that same vibe about Trump. Despite the left's serial freakouts, I think: So far, so good. I know that there will have to be disappointments along the way, but I'm not regretting the politically forced choice I had to make, between two evils, as much as I was on and for months before November 7, 2016.

In other words, things could be about to get a lot better. The right track wrong track polling average at Real Clear Politics a week before the elections was plus 33.4 wrong track (63.1 of the nation thought wrong track, 29.7 thought right track). It's better now about two weeks after the election (plus 31.1 wrong track). Let's see where that is by the midterms in 2018.

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Comments:
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/18/the-stark-contrast-between-the-gops-self-criticism-in-2012-and-the-democrats-blame-everyone-else-posture-now/

The DNC and their supporters' reactions have been pretty disgraceful. I think Trump will be a horrible president, but no worse then the last several horrible presidents. The bar's been set pretty low at this point.
 
Good comment. I agree with most of what you say. I am prepared for the most likely outcome, that Trump is indeed horrible, but I've been through just this sort of low expectations/pleasant surprise for a President elect before. It's difficult to know the future.
 
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