The Revenge of Reality [UPDATED]

I really didn't think the Democrats could take the Senate, but they just might. [Of course, they did.] Jim Talent has conceded to Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Jon Tester is ahead in Montana. It may come down to a contentious, 2000-like recount in Virginia.

Quite amazing, considering how much the Dems leave to be desired. And to be understood, I think, as a lashing-out at Bush & Co., a sublimation of the wish to yell "You're fired!!"

My own reaction surprises and amuses me. My heart and head go their separate ways. I can't help feeling an involuntary surge of exhilaration at the Democratic victory (if that's what it is in the Senate as well as the House -- big if) which is pure conditioned, home-team reflex: I was raised blue, most of my family and old friends are blue, and a part of me will always run with my herd of origin. But my brain has gone the other way! I disapprove and am apprehensive of much of what the Democrats are likely to do. I hope they surprise me, and are sobered by their sudden expulsion from the womb of opposition.

But the Republicans really had it coming. It's the arrogance, stupid. Who can forget these breathtaking words:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
        ~ Ron Suskind, The New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2004

UPDATE: Here's a little Jewish wisdom for our president:

The classic book of Jewish ethics, "Duties of the Heart" (Chovot HaLevavot), explains that "humility is the ability to see reality."

It wasn't "the reality-based community" that took the Republican empire down. It was reality.

Comments

[Melinda]

It wasn't "the reality-based community" that took the Republican empire down. It was reality.

Well put!

I know what you mean about the heart/head thing. My emotional response is "Nyah-nyah!" the way you feel when the class bully gets his ass handed to him.

The head is like, "Eh...business as usual."

[amba]

Thanks for noticing!

[Pastor_Jeff]

Arrogance, corruption, mismanagement, and abandonment of traditional Republican values probably didn't help either.

[BrianOfAtlanta]

Yes, that kind of "reality is what we say it is" arrogance has been blatantly obvious to even right-of-center types since Schiavo.

I had kind of the opposite emotional/intellectual reaction to yours. Republicans losing the House was expected, and no shocker. The prospect of Republicans losing the Senate at first gave me this sinking feeling, the old red-team spirit, but now I'm thinking it probably won't be that bad. It will be fascinating to see what influence, if any, Dems like Webb and Ford have on the Democratic consensus in the Senate.

[realpc]

I was raised blue and gradually questioned the blue mythology until I almost turned red a couple of years ago. I hated the Republicans, but not as much as I hated the Democrats. But now I hate the Republicans even more than the Democrats! I voted for Democrats yesterday and I am so glad they took over the house.
I still can't stand the Democratic mythology. Workers don't make enough money -- easy to fix, just raise the minimum wage. Everything is easy to fix, in their simple-minded worldview. Terrorism? Easy -- just be nicer to everyone and they'll stop hating us.
But the Republicans have been a terrible disappointment. Don't start a war unless you have good reasons to think you can win. And after you start it, don't drag it out forever and expect Americans to keep cheering you on.

[wj]

The part about "we create our own reality" has to rank as one of the great (if unintended) honest comments. Obviously the aide didn't know (or perhaps merely didn't care) that creating one's own reality is one of the hallmarks of the kind of psychiatric problems that get one institutionalized. Because at the end of the day, the real reality is still there.

[amba]

Brian: well, Ford lost . . . but maybe there'll be Tester, another "blue dog" Democrat.

One very interesting offshoot of this election is that the Democrats will move toward the center (since they owe their victory to centrist candidates), while the Republicans will become more conservative. The ousters of Chafee and DeWine, despite their constituents' approval of them, is sad but shows some sophistication on voters' parts: they really wanted to give the ruling Republican party a time-out, and in this case sheer party numbers trumped personal character and popularity. In effect they were saying to those two guys, "It isn't personal."

[Tom Strong]

My reaction is similar to yours, amba, though I'm holding out hope that the Democrats will be sane. They're not the opposition party anymore, so they better be pretty careful about claiming any sort of "mandate." We've seen where that can go.

I'm finding myself most interested, though, in the governorships and other stuff on the fringes of the news. Prop. 107 went down here in AZ - albeit barely - which I'm pleased about. And the elections of Eliot Spitzer and Deval Patrick both seem potentially huge.

Meanwhile, in my old stomping grounds of Georgia, Sonny Perdue beat Mark Taylor's brains in as expected. Taylor probably shouldn't have been the Dem candidate anyway - Cathy Cox would have done much better, in my opinion. But so it goes...

[BrianOfAtlanta]

Tom, I'm just glad to see the flaggers get trounced at least as badly as Taylor. For four years we've been hearing how Sonny owed his election to their machinations against Roy Barnes and how they were going to teach Sonny a lesson for not toeing their line. Then Sonny won nearly 60% of the vote. Hopefully Georgia can now quietly move past the old versus new state flag issue.

If Cathy Cox had won the Dem nomination, the Sonny vs. Cathy decision would have been a hard one for me. I have voted for Cathy every time she's been on the ballot. I'm not the only registered Republican who felt this way, either. Nominating Mark Taylor made it an easy decision for governor at the polls.

[Tom Strong]

Brian,

Man, you're absolutely right - the flaggers did say that Sonny was going to get his this year. I pity the fools.

I had pretty much forgotten about that whole issue. But now that you've reminded me, I'll join you in feeling pleased.