perfidy

Over at Bill Whittle's place, there's a new, short post up on the aftermath of the CA Recall Election. I had thought some of this, though not quite so well, when I trolled through the Democratic Underground forum after it became clear that the Terminator would now be the Governator. The Democratic Underground is exactly what it would be if it were designed by an evil genius hired by Karl Rove to discredit the left. Of course, this is exactly what Sovietologist Robert Conquest's second law predicts: "The behavior of an organization can best be predicted by assuming it to be controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies."

Amazingly, no one who posts on DU seems to be aware of this.

Anyway, the best bit from Whittle's post:

I just heard on the radio from a Democratic state senator who said that "the people were unable to figure out who they were really angry at," that this was really a vote against George W Bush, only the people weren't smart enough to figure out how to go about it and blamed it on poor old Gray Davis. Yes, in their righteous fury and anger at the Republican President, the People of California elected - a Republican governor! That'll show him! 

But as I just learned from California Democratic Party members, we were too stupid to figure out who to be angry with. Yes, by all means - please continue to tell us how stupid we are. We'll love you with all our hearts! 

... DemocraticUnderground.com is awash in conspiracy theories, and spins on how this is 1) The most flagrant voter fraud since - um - the last election, which was itself only overshadowed once in all of history, that being the time right before; and 2) Really the best thing that could possibly happen, since now the Democratic Sweep of 2004 is assured.

And still these people wonder why, after insulting and demeaning the electorate, their poll numbers continue to go down? Shwartz---sorry, Governor Schwarzenegger and McClintock - two Republicans that essentially split the party ticket - together took home around 60% of Califreakingfornia! And instead of doing the smart thing - let alone the honorable thing - they keep hanging blame wherever they think it will stick. They lost because the machines were rigged. They lost because you voters are so stupid. They lost because of a backroom conspiracy. They lost because you're all racists. Or sheep. Or blinded by cheap glitter.

What an uplifting, inspiring philosophy! How can a simple citizen like me become a part of this great vision of leadership and hope?

This is the real, and very serious problem with the left. The contempt and derision for the electorate, the conspiracy theories, the Bush=Hitler, and all the other wacky shit desperately need to go far, far away and not come back. I sincerely hope that at some point it recovers from this madness, and we can have the relatively sane and mildly acrimonious political arena we once had.