One thing seems clear in current American politics: you alienate independents to your peril. First the GOP did it, and now the Dems are busy apparently trying to alienate independents as quickly as possible. See the political turnarounds in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Massachusetts with Scott Brown. (See this too.)
After all, what do independents seem to want most? Limited government and the protection of individual rights. PREACH IT! Related to this are the ongoing tea party protests and the frustration of the middle class. We do NOT like an ever-increasing tax-sucking intrusive federal juggernaut run by a "let-zem-eat-unpopular-policy" lot of mealy-mouthed, sticky-fingered, statist corruptocrats and ideologues bent on reducing every productive citizen to indentured tax servitude.
Oh, and here's some free MM advice to the unbelievably feckless and ineffective leadership of the RNC and GOP. Pay attention, people! Stop banging on about social agendas. We don't like the left pushing social agendas, so what makes you think we'll like the right doing it too? Get down to brass tacks here: Limited government. Lower taxes. Less government intrusion. More individual freedom. No nanny government. Stop penalizing the productive in order to bail out the failed and failing. Or, to put it most simply, I'll vote for the people who promise to first (a) LEAVE ME (AND MY WALLET) ALONE, and (b) prevent others from messing with my Constitutionally-protected rights and liberties. (And, yes, for me, this encompasses going after terrorists.)
For the record, this nanny-government idea and the nanny-statists' attempt to infantilize everybody. I don't want or like my own biological parents telling me what to do. Why would I want a government doing that? A government with the power to tax (always the power to destroy) and to compel? I mean, seriously, if my mom nags me to change my behavior or do something that I don't want to do, I can just go away or ignore the directive. If the nanny state nags, it can outlaw things and impose fines and resort to all sorts of nastiness. Why would any intelligent, freedom-loving person assent to such a thing? The only reason I can think of is the temptation to suck forever at the government teat, depend on the Mommy State cradle-to-grave, and refuse to take any responsibility for oneself. Pathetic. Give me spirited, self-reliant rugged individualism any day. Maybe the question boils down to, do you want opportunities or guarantees?
Oh, and to be fair, here's some free advice for the Dems in power in DC. Pay attention! The voter revolts do NOT mean that you should push on even harder with your craptastic policy ideas that every single poll reveals to be wildly unpopular with just about EVERYBODY, left, right, and center! Are you really so far into your own echo chamber that you don't realize that you are utterly out of step with THE COUNTRY? Stop trying to cram stuff down our throats as if we were geese being force-fed to make foie gras. (Then again, maybe that's exactly the point, so eventually they can eat our livers -- I mean, bank accounts.)
Oh, and you might want to dial back the overweening aristocratic arrogance, elitist self-absorption, and open contempt for dissenting citizens or, in the words of one of your DC peeps, "evil-mongers." Your Marie Antoinette is showing. Lucky for you, in this country we don't have the guillotine. We do, however, have something even better. They're called elections, and if I'm not mistaken there are a whole boatload of midterm elections coming this very year. Remember, you are in office to serve the citizens, not the other way around. Pelosi, your "most ethical Congress ever" is now the most despised train wreck of a Congress ever. A wise person learns from his own mistakes. A REALLY wise person learns from someone else's mistakes. Only a total moron learns nothing at all from his own mistakes. Wake up and smell the political mortality. In good Greek-tragic fashion, hubris soon practically begs for nemesis to come and squash it like an cockroach.
Now I could go on lambasting politicians left and right, but I have better things to do! MM is going to procrastinate on her latest nerd paper; she's off to the mall and to Borders (to look at books that have nothing to do with her studies!).
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