A Disheartening Election Season

It's been a strange, depressing political season. Glenn Reynolds describes the campaign at this point in a nutshell, with a little help from Jeff Goldstein - the stay-at-home dad leftist academics love to hate. I'll be voting for McCain's rolodex this year - or maybe against Obama's rolodex - leftist academics, liberal jurists, Hollywood, competing activist groups, etc.

I know it's not ideal to vote in terms of avoiding negatives. At least McCain has a record of opposing corruption - as does Palin. And as Jennifer Rubin points out, Obama's one constant (in political terms) is that he has never actively opposed political corruption, despite getting his political start in one of the areas of the country most famous for political corruption.

One problem is that McCain is running on Obama's turf when it comes to the economy, which is the hot-button issue right now. America may be about to elect its most left-wing national government ever. Including strengthening the Pelosi-Reid congress. Ironic that a recent poll showed that 56% of voters would throw out the entire congress if they could.

George Will reminds us that among the first orders of business of an Obama-Pelosi-Reid government would be solidifying their power by revoking the secret ballot in union elections (giving union activists great power to intimidate) and re-instating the Fairness Doctrine. This would drive Talk Radio off the public airwaves because it would not be economically feasible for stations to try to "balance" the views presented there. On the other hand, Rush Limbaugh might be broadcast on Pacifica Radio and NPR, which would be a culture shock to the Left. And we might see a requirement that "The View" be balanced by a show featuring a bunch of conservative men with a token liberal. An amusing thought.

I think forcing Talk Radio out of business could make the Right nuttier, given their existing exasperation at the brazen bias of the Mainstream media - pointed out here by former leftist radical Roger L. Simon. The loss of Talk Radio could drive the Right onto the internet, where angry groups tend to reinforce each other's feelings. This would be unfortunate. Talk Radio is out in the open where it can be monitored and challenged easily. And conservative talk shows take challenging callers (even if they are not treated fairly in every instance). I like Dennis Prager for his emphasis on reason over emotion in politics. Many other talk show hosts are also heavily into thought and fact over feelings.

The Angry Right is gearing up to act like the Angry Left has for the last 8 years: Not a good thing. Well, maybe not quite like the Angry Left.

Anger and conspiracy theories from the right would be a big mistake. The right is judged by a different standard than the left. I think an emphasis on reason, working to promote better candidates and working to limit government expansion are more useful, if less immediate, ways to limit the potential damage which could be done by a "therapeutic president" who seems to be such a nice guy and who is, by all accounts, a wonderful father.

As one of the Instapundit correspondents (in the Angry Right link above) said, "I plan to take a different tack. . . , should Obama win the election. I think conserv/atarians should "perceive the Obama Administration as damage, and route around it."

That is, fight against Government power, without focusing on who is weilding it, and rebuild our non-Governmental institutions to get done the things that need to get done."