Hullabaloo summarizes why we, Democrats, fetishize the Coming Perfect Storm

Hullabaloo: "We just don't have the killer instinct. They do. So they win and we lose. I guess we have to wait for total economic armageddon or nuclear meltdown in which case we will win by default. "



The original thesis of this blog was that Bush is such an unwise leader, that his policies would inevitably lead to catastrophe, and, if the U.S. is lucky, perhaps, the catastrophes will coincide and the bad results will be so unmistakeable, that the Republican Party as presently constituted will be swept from power for a generation. This is a perversely hopeful scenario, in that it requires the country to endure a painful and humiliating period.



One alternative theory is that Bush's foolishness will never lead to catastrophic "moment" and that his supporters are so stupid, they can rationalize any eventuality. The U.S. will decline precipitously, economically, politically and militarily, but like a live lobster in a warming pot, the political majority of Americans will not notice until we're all cooked. A conservative Supreme Court will strip the government of the legal basis for the New Deal; economic decline will be blamed on globalization, even as Republican corporate executives walk away with $100 million salaries, untaxed, of course; military and diplomatic failure to head off nuclear proliferation and the rise of China and Iran, etc., will be laughed off. With a corporate right-wing media dominating all sources of information, and "electronic voting" eliminating the need for anything more than a show of political campaigning, the country will slip into a fascist state, from which it might begin to recover, circa 2040.



For the really paranoid, there is a variation on the boiled lobster thesis, which suggests that Bush's policies are aimed at "hooverizing" his Democratic successor. His military policy and his economic policy are certain to have disastrous consequences in the long run, but his plan is to be out of office before then. Let a Democrat clean up the mess, and let the Democrats be blamed, say, for having to withdraw from Iraq or raise taxes to cover the deficits.