Bush and the gradual accumulation of grievances

[starroute]

An uncle of mine was police and fire commissioner of a city in New Jersey for about 20 years. He was a born politician -- the sort of person who never forgot a name or face, knew everyone in town, could work a crowd with a personal touch for every individual. When I was little, I thought he'd be commissioner forever.

But finally there was an election that he lost. I was bewildered and asked my mother why.

She explained to me that the longer a politician holds office, the more grievances accumulate against him. Former supporters easily become disillusioned if they don't get the benefits they anticipated, and it isn't easy for an established office-holder to find new supporters. Eventually, the number of supporters who have turned into opponents reaches critical mass, and the politician is out.

I see something very similar happening with the Bush administration, only on an accelerated basis. Instead of reaching out to their opponents, and possibly turning them into supporters, they have done their best to punish and antagonize them. At the same time, their core supporters -- like the religious right -- are becoming disillusioned by their failure to get everything they anticipated.

Even without WMD, even without the economy going bottom-up, that style of governing would leave the Bushites as an isolated minority before very long. With those issues and other scandals, they could quickly become even more universally despised than Richard Nixon.

[meti57b]

1. One can only hope.

It should at least be the situation with the moderate middle where so many of the votes are.