Cynicism & Republicans

I wrote my dissertation on cynicism and democracy and have often wrote here about the topic as well. When Obama won the election in 2008 I had hoped that it was a direct challenge to what I argued was a pervasive cynicism in American democracy. He ran on the dual messages of hope and change and that appeared to resonate with a population tired of the cynical, backward looking policies of the Bush administration. And yet two years later it appears Republicans are on the brink of winning back majorities in the House and maybe Senate: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41603.html. How have the Republicans done it?

I believe the rather obvious answer is by returning to the cynical policies that have won them power since Reagan. They run as white victims, as anti-Government, pro-business "populists," as latent (or in some cases obvious) racist, anti-Gay, xenophobic candidates playing on white male resentment at the cultural revolution of the 60s and on fear and greed. The past few weeks have shown us just the latest examples of this strategy in action, including the attacks by Focus on the Family on a very serious problem in schools: bullying (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/focus_on_the_family_dont_let_gay_activists_hijack.php), arguing that gays have underminded the "Christian" spirit of those programs, the absurd call to God and the founding fathers of Glenn Beck last week (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/08/30/pray&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Premium%29_7_30_110) and the continued anti-immigrant, Obama is a Muslim, Communist non-citizen discourse and so many other overt and covert nods to their White, Christian, Free Market ideology.

But this is old news and has been going on for over 30 years now. The problem I see is the media's myopic adherence to conservative discourse. Just today, John Dickerson at Slate argues that Obama is making Bush look good in some ways: http://www.slate.com/default.aspx?id=2265539. And this follows articles in the New York Times and Washington Post in recent days that blame Obama for all that ails America. I believe this started soon after Obama entered office and has only worsened as time has gone on. While the New Yorker and some political coverage has made the salient point that Obama has kept many of his problems, is enacting the very policies he promised when he ran, and as the left has made abundantly clear (and I agree in some cases), is far more moderate than many had hoped. But what happened to those who voted for him two short years ago? Has he really been that disappointing? Did they really think he could fix all of our financial and social problems in less than two years? And do they really believe a return to the failed policies of Reagan and Bush will really somehow work this time? I, for one, hope they wake up in time. And hope is really all we have right now.