What Digby Said

It really is all about winning.

I've told the story before about sitting despondently in my front yard on the morning after the Supreme Court stopped the vote in Florida chatting with my neighbor about how shockingly undemocratic it was and wondering whether or not people would accept Bush as president. He shrugged and said that most people probably secretly respect him more for having gotten away with it. That was way too cynical for me at the time. Now, not so much. All you have to do is watch one of the ubiquitous reality show competitions (or Wall Street) to see that bending the rules is considered the smart move.

And while it's true that Republicans whine all the time about Democrats breaking the rules, they do it with a smirk and a wink thereby letting everyone know they are the ones gaming the system. (Do you think they really cared that someone called General Petraeus, General Betrayus? --- And doesn't that seem quaint at this point considering the current level of discourse?)

The Democrats should just eliminate the filibuster and let the Republicans howl. The teabaggers will have a mass aneurysm, of course, babble about revolution and say black helicopters are coming to take the babies away to FEMA camps, but so what? They do that when Obama attends the White House egg rolling ceremony. The Dems should be far less afraid to have that fight than to be seen whining about how the Republicans aren't playing fair. That's the main thing people like about them. It shows they are winners.

Because even when Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 and gave the Democrats the largest margin of control in Congress in generations, by Summer 2009 the Dems were losers again.  These days the only question the Village is asking is how badly the Democrats will be crushed by in November, and how long they will be in the wilderness this time after Obama is rendered irrelevant along with the party, their elitist, out-of-touch ideas, and how dead liberalism itself will be as the GOP is rightfully restored to permanent power.  Obamamania was just a hiccup, you see.  We've been a right-wing nation since 1776, and liberalism only emerges through bouts of unfortunate kicking and screaming and the occasional civil war.

The reality is that the Dems still cling to antiquated, worthless ideas like "facts" and "logic".  Perception is reality.  Al Gore is fat.  Kerry is a coward.  Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, and Sarah Palin will save us all because she's the smartest woman on the entire planet because she knows just how stupid she is and doesn't mind telling us.

That makes her a winner because El Rushbo and Glennsanity say so, over and over again.  One side has people interested in debate, the exchange of ideas, and the betterment of all.  The other side is interested in crushing the first side into bloody paste and then setting that paste on fire until all vestiges of the first side's ideals pass into myths and legends used to scare children at night.  Guess which side wins in the end?

History is written by the winners, as they say.  Even more important is the fact that laws, budgets, jurisprudence and executive orders are also written by the winners.   One side understands that.

It's not the Democrats.