Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
PREDICTION: GOP TO STUMBLE BADLY IN 2016 ELECTION
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Now that the GOP has taken over congress, I suspect that they’re already beginning to recognize that their new role of congressional leadership is not quite as easy as their old role of irresponsible obstructionists. In the last congress, all Republicans had to do was sit back and come up with a pretext for saying no to everything. Then when things began to fall apart as a result of their irresponsible behavior, the American people blamed it on President Obama and the Democrats. But now, they have a responsibility to perform, and to initiate legislation to help move the country forward. That’s an entirely different ball game. Now they're going to be held accountable.
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The GOP is also going to have to deal with the fact that their corporate supporters are now going to fully expect tons of favorable legislation heaped their way in return for the tons of cash they funneled into the GOP. Then, when you add to that, the virulent, and still growing, antipathy of the American people toward corporate greed, and the GOP’s long tradition - and what's become a conservative obligation - of trying to undermine every program designed to protect the average citizen, they’re between a rock and a hard place.
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In addition, conservatives tend to lack a sense of limits, in any event. So it’s not even a gamble to predict that they’re going to overreach and incur the wrath of the American people with their excesses, just like they did during the Civil Rights movement when they attacked civil rights marchers with dogs, brutality, and fire hoses on the street. I predict they’re going to repeat that mistake, but this time, instead of hosing down marchers in the street, they’re going to attempt to hose down the American people as a whole by unleashing the conservative dogs of greed and brutality attack the American middle-class safety net.
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Due to their devastating defeat of the Democrats during the last election the GOP is more than likely going to misread the meaning of the election. I doubt that they recognize that they won the last election due to the partisanship of undereducated voters in little towns and fiefdoms across America, not because, as they tend to believe, the American people actually agree with their pro 1% agenda. So they’re already started attacking the middle-class safety net, not realizing that nothing wakes up an undereducated partisan voter like being hit in their own pocket. Such voters tend to be all for the conservative agenda as long as it doesn’t have an impact on the security and comfort of their own lives.
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Another problem that Republicans have created for themselves is they seem to have brought out the warrior in President Obama. If the GOP had lost the midterm election, Obama probably would have continued to try to compromise with them in an attempt to get things done. The reason he was so intent on trying to compromise in the past is because he didn’t want to look like a bully who was just rolling over conservatives because he won the election. He’s free of that concern now. In addition, his legacy is on the line, so we’re beginning to see the Obama that many progressives have been calling for, and expected, when he was first elected.
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So the GOP may very well become the classic victims of unintended consequences, because their behavior is going to change the image of Barack Obama and the Democrats in the eyes of many conservative-leaning partisans from "reckless socialists," to that of defenders of the people. As a direct result, it’s very likely that even as the GOP is hemorrhaging support by incurring the wrath of the American people, President Obama and the Democrats will be gaining support - and just in time for the 2016 election.
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Thus, Democrats shouldn’t be depressed over the results of the 2014 midterm election at all. On the contrary, they should be jumping with glee at this point, because they’re going to be in a great position for the 2016 Presidential election. Whoever is the Democratic nominee is nearly certain to become the next President of the United States, and I hope that ticket includes Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in whatever order - and I predict that it will.
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.