I concluded my post “Bush-League America” by writing, “It’s time to admit our mistakes and leave the bush-league perspective behind. We can begin at the voting booth this November.”
Is that what has begun to happen with this week’s midterm elections? I’d like to think so, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see the Democrats offer a vision of America that is truly distinctive and that can appeal to a majority of American citizens. Say what you want about the far right in this country (and I’ve said a good many things over the last few years), they do have a vision that is — distinctive. What are the Democrats going to do to keep the middle-of-the-road and slightly-conservative party that voted with them this time out of revulsion for the failures of George W. Bush? Being “not-Bush” might have worked this time around, but it probably won’t in two years’ time.
One of my students, who attended Mark Crisipin Miller’s lecture and remained skeptical afterwards, asked me on Thursday what Prof. Miller would say to the results of the election. The right didn’t steal the election; the Democrats won; and so wasn’t Miller wrong?
I haven’t talked to Miller about it yet, but I suspect he would say tha the far right did their very best to steal the election in a variety of ways and that in a truly fair election the Democrats would have won not by piecing together a series of slim victories, but rather in a landslide. In other words, this election shouldn’t have been as close as it was.
One possible explanation.