A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that one of the critical questions about the direction of the country concerns whether the left or the right captures and channels growing populist rage. One election doesn't constitute a trend, but this election for Kennedy's senate seat is a disheartening indicator that the teaparty right has the advantage so far.
It's quite disturbing that even blue states are not immune from teaparty dynamics regarding a major elective office, but when the Dems put up a candidate who is so easily caricatured as an out-of-touch yuppie elitist so loathsome to a blue collar electorate (and any normal person), it shouldn't be all that surprising. The obtuseness of the Democratic establishment in resisting being painted in a corner like this is a thing one can only stand before in slack-jawed amazement.
UPDATE: Evan Bayh's "lesson" is exactly wrong, but his is the narrative that will be picked up in the media and become political reality. People (outside the 25% teaparty group) are angry at Democrats not because they over-reached with healthcare, but because they came up so miserably short and because rank-and-file Dems are disgusted by corporatist yuppies like Evan Bayh. This is the biggest scam yet–that Bayh's corporatism represents the moderate, sane center. This bill is unpopular precisely because it represents what so-called centrists like Bayh and Lieberman wanted, not what the left wanted.
UPDATE II: Greenwald on the same subject:
For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as "pragmatists" and centrists — which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased. That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded "Left" has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year. Is there anyone who actually believes that "The Left" is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party? The fact that Lanny Davis — to prove the Left's dominance — has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is. What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating? I'd honestly love to know.
Me too. The only silver lining here is that this ridiculous corporatist = centrist narrative will be exposed and rejected once and for all as too stupid even for CNN types to utter. I know, dream on.
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