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

Sunday, November 7, 2021

How Is This A Sustainable Political Party?

 On Friday, House Democrats and a handful of Republicans voted for the BIB infrastructure bill. It got votes from Republicans in both the Senate and House. That makes it bipartisan, kids!

The House Republican response to this is...unhinged.

There are several themes in the GOP reponse.

The first is that Biden's economic plan has led to inflation and supply chain issues. This is transparent bullshit, but it's normal political bullshit. Same with deficit concerns. Bish, please.

The second is that somehow the time of day matters. Lots of talk about a midnight bill. What the actual fuck? I know most GOP voters can't stay up past 10pm, but who honestly cares?

The third is, of course, socialism. Now, the BIB is a lot of things, but if it is "socialism" than ANY spending is socialism, which might actually be how batshit insane the GOP has become. What is going to be interesting is seeing what happens to public opinion about socialism. If "popular things" is socialism, then why is socialism bad?

I do think that the bullshit socialism label hurt Biden with some South Florida Hispanic voters, and maybe some along the Rio Grande - two places he underperformed. It was a combination of "socialism," the Defund the Police gaffe and the power of incumbency. The problem with this line of attack should be obvious: infrastructure spending - and much of the BBB bill - is broadly very popular.

When Biden runs against in 2024 - presumably against Trump - the label of "socialism" is simply not going to stick.

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