Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Ready! Fire! Aim!

The Democratic Republican party is in disarrayTrump of course, is claiming he was right all along.  In fact, McConnell and the establishment GOP was right that Roy Moore was unelectable. That won't stop the recriminations from flowing against Steve Bannon's plan to unleash the id of the GOP - naked and foaming at the mouth - upon an unsuspecting electorate.

There were a few reasons to accept a Roy Moore victory - mainly that Republicans would have to spend quite a lot of time defending his presence in the Senate.  A Jones victory brings several positives to the Democrats.

First, any win is precious for a party still reeling from Clinton's loss.

Second, Jones is a reliable vote against Republican legislation in a Senate body that is already a struggle to find 50 votes for an unpopular legislative agenda.  Tax reform might have died last night.

Third, Jones opens the door to Democrats taking control of the Senate next fall.  That would give them subpoena power and the possibility that they could block radical appointees.

But most importantly, Jones' win in crimson Alabama should unleash a war between Bannon's populist wing and the establishment GOP.  To a degree, that establishment is capturing Trump via legislation.  If an open rupture occurs over candidates like Moore, that could greatly advantage Democrats.

My fondest hope is that Bannon leads his moronic followers out of the GOP into a quixotic third party bid for white supremacists. 

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