In a district that Republicans had held for 33 years, the party and its candidate Woody Jenkins ran a campaign straight from their tattered playbook. Republicans tried to persuade voters that Cazayoux was really pronounced "Tax You" and were unrelenting in trying to tie Cazayoux to Obama and the Democratic House speaker.
"A Vote for Don Cazayoux is a vote for Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi," one ad declared. "If Don Tax You gets to Washington, he'll do what they tell him to do." Another ad cast the stakes this way: "Is Obama right for Louisiana? Is Pelosi? You decide." Decide the voters did, not so much for Obama and Pelosi as against the very concept of the Republican campaign. Cazayoux ran as a conservative on guns and abortion, but relied on national Democratic themes in advocating for "middle-class families" and the proposition that "every family should have health care."
Senator Obama has regained his balance after the recent media broadsides about race and religion, has taken the body blows from Senator Clinton, and has engaged the debate with Senator McCain in anticipation of the fall presidential campaign. It appears that the "change" that Obama has been proclaiming since the beginning of the campaign is taking root. In Louisiana, the voters voted against the Republicans as much as they voted for Cazayoux. This is especially significant in that a Democrat won for the first time in 33 years. Could the political landscape be turning? Is this perhaps an indication that the divisive politics of the past might give way to the uniting politics of change?
In his speech Tuesday night, Obama predicted that his opponents would "play on our fears and exploit our differences." He would face "the same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn't agree with all their ideas, the same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives, by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy, in the hopes that the media will play along." And then he promised "to make this year different."
The best thing for America right now is a hard turn away from political business as usual. The Republicans have enjoyed 28 years of being the top dog. Bloggers are still reminding us that what they've accomplished during their reign of error is still better than "Carter Malaise", the "Great Depression", "Stagflation", and "Hoovervilles." That two of those four are on the Republican Party doesn't seem to matter in the attack dog right wing blogosphere.
The War Party has a tired and worn platform. They are still running against the New Deal, the 60's, and are still trying to justify the Vietnam debacle and the Watergate scandals of the 70's. They've pushed too hard, divided the country to the point that they've finally isolated themselves and are reduced to lobbing rhetorical mortar shots from behind their safe ideological walls. These are OLD ideas that have little relevance to today's political climate. Democrats have the pulse of the nation, the Republicans are mired in the past.
Newt Gingrich said it best in a recent issue of Human Events Magazine.
The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti- Reverend Wright, or (if Senator Clinton wins), anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail.
This model has already been tested with disastrous results.
In 2006, there were six incumbent Republican Senators who had plenty of money, the advantage of incumbency, and traditionally successful consultants.
But the voters in all six states had adopted a simple position: "Not you." No matter what the GOP Senators attacked their opponents with, the voters shrugged off the attacks and returned to, "Not you."
The danger for House and Senate Republicans in 2008 is that the voters will say, "Not the Republicans.
He goes on to say:
The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November.
Folks the tide is turning. I'm more encouraged by this news than I have been in this whole political season. It ain't over till it's over, but hope is abounding. The dogs of the war party are losing the scent, the Great American Hypocrites are being exposed finally as political frauds. Their true aims of Empire and Monarchy have been exposed. The choice between Empire and Republic is clear. Republicans have chosen Empire, Democrats will return us to a Republic. President Barack Obama...I like the sound of that!
2 comments:
Woody Jenkins was the worst candidate they could've run, even if he is a Republican in a very "red" district. He's lost several elections, including a close US Senate bid to Mary Landrieu; his is a "perpetual candidacy" for any office he can try for, and I believe voters tire of that. (See Alan Keyes...)
Cazayoux did not run as a liberal, either. He emphasized certain conservative principles while espousing a populist message while running against a "been there, done that" candidate. He successfully blurred the lines enough...the Dems, to their credit, have been adept at finding GOP-lite candidates to run in GOP districts, no matter that they'll toe the Pelosi or Reid line once actually in office.
And, the Democrats are just as responsible for the "divisive politics of the past" as Republicans are. Politics, and elections, are cyclical...The GOP is down, and the Dems are primed to take advantage. They'll be in power for a time, and then the "throw the bums" out mentality will apply to them as well. I'll remind you that the job approval rating for the Democrat Congress is incredibly low, so the "uniting politics of change" that you so desperately want may indeed be shortlived.
So did the Republicans just pick someone they could hang out to dry? Or were they really overconfident that the old hardball would really work?
There are a distressingly high number of "Blue Dog" Dems that the national party had to go recruit to get that working majority. The idea here is tranformational politics. Even though they are GOP Lite, they help change the numbers, and Liberals have a chance to begin defining the debate. It happens one election at a time. It took the Republicans nearly 40 years, and now they've had it for 30.. The cycle is turning back to the democrats.
The rating is equally a result of Democratic cowardice and getting steamrolled by the lock-step minority along with the complete subordination of the Republican caucus to their leadership. The resulting stonewall has fed the low numbers for Congress, the Democrats AND the Republicans... Like I said, the cycle is turning slowly, but in a progressive direction.
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