Nobody could have predicted...

[longship]

It's like the classic Bush administration escape from accountability, "Nobody could have predicted...". But this essay is not about airliners crashing into buildings, weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi insurgencies, category five hurricanes, or any other neocon problem. I'm writing here about the 2006 midterm elections. Even few weeks ago nobody could have predicted that the Democrats would be positioned to take back both houses of Congress next week. But that's precisely what's going to happen on Tuesday.

One could easily puncuate this metaphor with all the many benefits Democrats have enjoyed the past months. Nobody could have predicted that reddest districts in the reddest states would become competitive. Nobody could have predicted that all the October surprises would come at the cost of the Republicans. Nobody could have predicted the extent and depths of the GOP meltdown. Nobody could have predicted that Republicans would be leaving their party in unprecidented numbers. And so it goes. But there is one more, and it is the most important of all.

Nobody could have predicted the extent to which this administration have painted themselves into an ideological corner. In spite of very strong indications that this would happen we all ignored the signs. The first indication might have been that this misadministration's first and sole response to any and all events is political in nature.

In spite of all the lauditory accolades on Bush's Brain, Karl Rove seems to be incapable of acting in anything other than the political sphere. The reason why all these horrible events have happened on ChimpCo's watch may be a direct result of their inability to act in the real, non-political world.

That is the reason why we keep hearing "Nobody could have predicted..." from them. In the political-sphere one does not predict, one only reacts. The problem with this is that when a hurricane is bearing down on a below-sea-level city, political actions don't save lives. Political actions also do not win wars, even though they may start them. They cannot prevent terrorist attacks, cannot find weapons, cannot stop corruption, nor any other of the outright plagues that have been inflicted on the American people under ChimpCo.

The most interesting thing about this effect is ChimpCo's response to their impending collapse of power. Maybe it's not surprising that the most ideological regime in world history could only react by hoisting themselves by their own ideological petard. Nobody could have predicted that the amazing culmination of this hoisting would happen in the last two weeks of the campaign when ChimpCo renounced their previous "stay the course" pronouncements--even lying that they never said, "stay the course"--while simultaneously showing the world in unequivocal words and actions that their ideology allowed nothing except "stay the course". Does anybody doubt the Chimp's engrained ideological path after his announcement yesterday that Rummy and Crashcart are in place for the duration?

Political action is ideologically based. And nobody has extended that base to the extent that the Republicans in power have done this past six years. The reason Democrats have gained the power with the people this past year is that the American people, mostly good and intelligent folks, have finally looked behind the curtain and seen the truth.

And so it goes. A political regime cannot govern. Pure ideology cannot react. Even though nobody could have predicted what is now undoubtedly going to happen next Tuesday, it might very well be the only non-predicted event of the past six years that was both truly non-predictable and to the benefit of our country, our world, our people.

Four days to go. Keep working hard, DUers.

[longship]

1. Shameless self-kick.

:kick: