Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

No one could have predicted…

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I was promised a recession.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You are here: Home / Let fury have the hour, anger can be power

Let fury have the hour, anger can be power

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Angry voters! So sayeth the Politico, so sayeth Bobo Collins. Angry voters are always bad, because when their candidates lose, it shows how awesome the center is and when their candidates win, it’s because people are angry, not because they have any idea what they are voting for. On the other hand, it’s important that presidents get angry when faced with a crisis they can’t do anything about. Otherwise, they look like Jimmy Carter.

I wonder if the increasing, incoherent focus on the emotions of voters and politicians is a by product of the fact that there is now no quantifiable way to keep score in politics. There was a time when elections had consequences, but that time is long past. Conservatism is ascendant in DC mythology, even though Republicans are badly outnumbered in Congress. Nothing can be quantified in politics anymore, so it’s best just to talk about who’s happy, who’s sad, who’s angry, who’s Spock-like.

Reader Interactions

104Comments

  2. 2.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    Nothing can be quantified in politics anymore, so it’s best just to talk about who’s happy, who’s sad, who’s angry, who’s Spock-like.

    Hi Dougj. During my recent hiatus, I have missed reading such little gems as the above.

  3. 3.

    Gregory

    Clash reference ftw.

    ETA:

    Angry voters are always bad, because when their candidates lose, it shows how awesome the center is they might vote against the status quo

    Fixed. [/Beltway punditry]

  5. 5.

    Mike Kay

    sadly though, today’s blogosphere has become a left wing mirror of the beltway media (ie why won’t obama cry and affirm my anger).

  6. 6.

    gwangung

    You can televise anger. Calm, collected consideration is a snooze-fest, ratings-wise.

  9. 9.

    Mike Kay

    Conservatism is ascendant in DC mythology, even though Republicans are badly outnumbered in Congress.

    Liberal media bias in action.

  10. 10.

    Tim I

    Where are the Clash when you need them.

    The Village conventional wisdom is becoming fossilized, perhaps due to the geriatric condition of the Villagers.

    Making shit up will always be easier than trying to figure out what’s actually happening.

  13. 13.

    Sly

    I wonder if the increasing, incoherent focus on the emotions of voters and politicians is a by product of the fact that there is no quantifiable way to keep score in politics. There was a time when elections had consequences, but that time is long past. Conservatism is ascendant in DC mythology, even though Republicans are badly outnumbered in Congress.

    In other words, its a product of paid political commentators not knowing what the fuck they’re talking about.

    Cue Bobo, who lacks any sense of self-awareness:

    Don’t voters know that we went into journalism because we don’t like weak correlations? We want our official trends to apply in every single case.

    Followed by:

    In any case, the Arkansas result is just another example of unions being out of touch.

  14. 14.

    uloborus

    Perhaps it’s not that there’s nothing to say, or that it’s too much effort to say it. Maybe it’s that any kind of realistic analysis of the facts would force the pundits to say things they wish weren’t true?

  16. 16.

    beltane

    The problem with the DC pundits is that they have become caricatures of themselves. Who needs to read David Brooks when any one of us here could write a decent approximation of a David Brooks column.

  17. 17.

    kdaug

    @gwangung: This. I’ve listened to three days now of pearl-clutching over Obama’s “ass to kick” line. Seems people forgot GHWB’s “we’re gonna kick his ass” line aboard Air Force One re: Saddam (v 1.0).

    The dreary, difficult, yet stultifying work of politics and compromise makes for lousy TV (CSPAN ratings, anyone?). Gotta gin it up it bit, give it some pizazz, spice it with some emotion and drama.

    Otherwise, how will we compete for ratings against the Cartoon Channel?

  18. 18.

    bobbo

    I wonder if the increasing, incoherent focus on the emotions of voters and politicians is a by product of the fact that there is now no quantifiable way to keep score in politics.

    No, it’s because you don’t have to know anything about anything to make observations about people’s emotions, and our press corpse doesn’t know anything about anything.

  19. 19.

    uloborus

    @kdaug:
    It won’t be hard. Total Drama Island, EESH. Where’s my friggin’ Chowder?

    Uloborus – cable for a year, to his pain

  20. 20.

    Lev

    I think we need a new label for David Brooks posts, like Bobo Knows or something like that. Maybe those ads are too obscure these days, but I’d find it funny.

    Frankly, I have no idea why anyone would take Brooks seriously after his cheerleading of Bush and Iraq, unless you just want a taste of the CW. Both Brooks and Noonan just go with the flow, reliably.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    @beltane:
    The entire punditocracy could vanish and it wouldn’t matter at all. Government would work just as well, maybe better. People would still get news, as there are still a few real journalists out there covering news. Pundits add nothing of value. Why do they even exist?

  23. 23.

    Oscar Leroy

    Conservatism is ascendant in DC mythology, even though Republicans are badly outnumbered in Congress.

    But–but–but how can this be with the Great Progressive Hope Barack Obama in the White House?

  25. 25.

    The Moar You Know

    Nothing can be quantified in politics anymore, so it’s best just to talk about who’s happy, who’s sad, who’s angry, who’s Spock-like.

    The president should be angry. But not black angry, that’s scary as fuck.

    Maybe he could be angry but be more white about it.

    It would be better if a white man had become president, that way the president could be angry about all the things I’m angry about, but not scare the media, my neighbors, and me by being angry in that black guy kind of way.

  26. 26.

    Cat

    @Emma:

    Representative democracy… killed by unlicensed pundit psychotherapy.

    If this killed Representative Democracy it probably was still born from the beginning.

  27. 27.

    kdaug

    @Lev: And yet the CW is, reliably, a beltway construct, utterly devoid of any relation to the “Real World ™”.

    It’s what they discuss while sipping juleps and playing squirt-gun with the VP.

    It’s a vapid, incestuous little circle of people too ugly to make it in Hollywood, but who demand the spotlight nonetheless.

    And we circle the drain.

  29. 29.

    Oscar Leroy

    Calm, collected consideration is a snooze-fest, ratings-wise.

    The Lincoln-Douglas debates went on for like 4 hours each, yet thousands of people stayed for the whole thing. I wonder if the public has changed or reporting has.

  30. 30.

    Sheila

    If everyone who perpetually complained about the punditry and the mainstream media did not frequent them, they would have far less power.

  31. 31.

    Comrade Dread

    We should replace Run-offs and Primaries with Battle Royales. That would provide plenty of distractions for the media.

    Throw in some real time fact checking for debates and Sunday morning media shows where the judges can administer increasingly strong electrical shocks for every falsehood, and I think we’d totally revolutionize politics.

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    @Sheila:
    In other words:
    The voices in your head are calling
    Stop wasting your time, there’s nothing coming

  33. 33.

    Mike Kay

    maybe only people with daddy issues can only get hired for the editorial page or tee vee

  36. 36.

    Cat

    @Oscar Leroy:

    I wonder if the public has changed or reporting has.

    Not to disparage everyone who went to watch the debates, but it was 18 fucking 58, WTF else did they have to do?

    You transport modern people back to 1858 and they’ll cut their own throats out of boredom.

  37. 37.

    MikeJ

    @Oscar Leroy:

    The Lincoln-Douglas debates went on for like 4 hours each, yet thousands of people stayed for the whole thing. I wonder if the public has changed or reporting has.

    If you had a four hour debate, the media would say that the people who stayed for the whole thing were “activists”. And they would use that word like it was a profanity.

  45. 45.

    licensed to kill time

    I wish people would learn not to put that damned hyphen in front of their sig! Puhlease!

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @licensed to kill time:
    I don’t know if it was that or something else, but the comment box vanished for me for a bit, too, right after GregB’s post. I’m using FF, so the hyphen thing doesn’t affect me, but I could see what had happened because in FF it always puts the dash prior to the name through the name as a strikethrough.

  49. 49.

    El Cid

    An interesting turn against the silly mantra that what we must most focus on now is the deficit from Ben Bernanke.

    “Right now I don’t think is the time — this very moment is not the time — to radically reduce our spending or raise our taxes because the economy is still in recovery mode and needs that support,” Bernanke testified before the House Budget Committee.
    __
    Bernanke referred to the nascent economic recovery as “still pretty fragile” and cautioned that the economy “may need more assistance.”

    That said, the biggest problem facing America right now, by far, is the deficit, because, soshullism, and also, shut up.

  50. 50.

    licensed to kill time

    @Violet:

    As soon as I saw the hyphen, I knew it was going to happen. It borked my page in FF too, but I refreshed and FF fixed it for me. That hyphen is a menace to polite society and should be shunned!

    @MikeJ SO TRUE! sign off sig totally unnecessary.

  51. 51.

    Bill H

    Angry voters are always bad, because when their candidates lose…

    How about when the candidates they vote against win?

  54. 54.

    Cat

    @stuckinred:

    lulz. The first article I looked at from the Quncy Whig:

    Lincoln Gets Douglas Down! ! ! !1one! !

    Apparently WP is humor challenged and doesn’t appreciate my ‘exclamation point’ humor.

  55. 55.

    Cat

    @stuckinred: This is treasure trove!

    Lincoln was shrill.

    His voice was not musical, being rather high-keyed and apt to turn into a shrill treble in moments of excitement

  56. 56.

    Sheila

    @MikeJ:
    Fewer readers, fewer watchers. One thing the leftwing blogosphere seems to agree on is that the mainstream media is sensationalistic, opportunistic, biased, and often misinformed. If this is the case, and the leftwing blogosphere has as much power as it thinks it does, shouldn’t the disappearance of all those viewers and readers make a big difference?

  60. 60.

    licensed to kill time

    DougJ if you could edit GregB comment at #38 and take out his hyphen initial, it would probably fix the thread.

    Even though I don’t see it because of Firefox and it’s sweet fixitude. Just sayin’.

  61. 61.

    kdaug

    @Sheila: Do you think they all went to LGF or RedState?

    Try “pox on both your houses”. It can be tedious.

  65. 65.

    Mako

    Did you realize that there is a show on television called “The Bachelorette”? Apparently it’s about selling off strumpets to hillbillies.
    Sometimes I long for the good old days when television was Family Affair and Gomer Pyle and those nice chaps in nazi prison.

  66. 66.

    QuaintIrene

    I’ve listened to three days now of pearl-clutching over Obama’s “ass to kick” line

    Ahhhh! Soon as I saw those quotes from Obama it was ‘set the egg timer!” Sure enough, the idiotic whinging of ‘He’s sullying the diginity of the White House.’ Ooooh, fetch my smelling salts!

    From the same pin-heads who praised Dubya for his ‘folksiness’ and being so down to earth. Ya know, the guy you’d like to have a beer with.
    Then show a couple photos of Obama in the Oval office with his jacket off or his feet on the desk, and they’re all suddenly screaming about desecration.

    Do they actually remember what they’ve said, from one pronouncement to the other? Does being part of the Village cause mild brain damage?

  67. 67.

    Elie

    Grrr — the horrible strikethrough monster returns…

    We have to be in one of the most difficult periods for leadership ever. Never have we needed it more and yet had more barriers to receiving or even perceiving it! I don’t think that many even know what leadership should be… (its usually some spin on coercion or a command and control type of action — we don’t consider sober deliberation to be effective leadership somehow) We get the Palins of the world who are literally jack booted crazies saying almost anything without any consequence (because of course she can — she is not elected to do anything), but somehow, that is ok. Conversely, we have a President who came into office with literally shit going down the tubes, he rights things enough to stop the immediate downspiral, passes health care reform after quite a tussle and now is being held responsible for not cleaning up MMM during this same time period! Did anyone have MMM front and center in that period of time a year to a year and a half ago?

    We have to get sane at some point, but its not looking like that is going to be anytime soon

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    This thread makes me angry.

    I wonder if the increasing, incoherent focus on the emotions of voters and politicians is a by product of the fact that there is now no quantifiable way to keep score in politics.

    Isn’t this part of the problem? Nobody cares if anything gets done. They just want to know who’s up, who’s down, who’s out, who’s in, who’s won, who’s lost.

    Who’s next.

  73. 73.

    aimai

    Maybe someone else said this way upthread but I think the reason that the media has shifted its attention away from facts and policies to “anger” is simply because their focus, as always, is on the angry white male. When the angry white male is merely apathetic, as under Bush, there’s no reason to discuss his feelings since he’s consenting to being governed by drunkards, rapists, and corporatist hacks by failing to vote them out of power. You’d be amazed at the number of political scientists and journalists who interpret quiescence and apathy as consent.

    But now that the white house is run by the black guy apathy, not voting, and feelings about shit are all bell wethers for really important things. Because we know that angry white guys are too lazy for actual revolution. But their anger is how we know that they might get off the barcalounger and go vote.

    aimai

  74. 74.

    DaddyJ

    Geez, and I always thought it was:

    “The theory of the hour: anger can be power…”

    Kinda like my mishearing better.

  77. 77.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @aimai:

    barcalounger

    I was certain that had to be a typo, or snark meaning “barfalounger” or something. But google proved there is such a couch potato throne.

    Your analysis sounds as good as any on this. The various nits the boobyheads choose to pick, use up too many brain calories for me to waste on teasing them out. Sometimes lately though, I have wondered if they pine for a race war, or some other kind of civil warring to boost ratings. Prolly dream of all the cool embed possibilities. Make Iraq seem like 50’s teevee./

  79. 79.

    EconWatcher

    Slightly off topic, but the mid-terms look like they’ll be very entertaining (as well as scary if the recovery stalls, as it seems to be doing).

    TPM reports that Carly Fiorina is going to run proudly on her record at Hewlett-Packard. Godspeed! Can you imagine how many laid off HP workers are going to volunteer themselves for the 30-second attack ads?

    And this Sharron Angle in Nevada looks like something very special indeed.

    But you know what? Come November, if we’re clearly descending into a double-dip, they could both end up in the U.S. Senate.

  80. 80.

    JL

    “Nothing can be quantified in politics anymore, so it’s best just to talk about who’s happy, who’s sad, who’s angry, who’s Spock-like”.

    If that’s true (and I don’t think it is), then the responsibility lands squarely on the shoulders of the democratic party. They were handed the legislative branch in 2006 (“impeachment is off the table”), and the Executive branch in 2008 (“let us look forward, not back”).

    Where the democratic party is concerned, there is no there there.

  81. 81.

    handy

    TPM reports that Carly Fiorina is going to run proudly on her record at Hewlett-Packard

    Carly, you are precious.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @handy: Fiorina will tie her role in the illegal spying into national security policy? Might work.

    Edit: to address topic of post, I blame human nature, since I think we would all like a job that consists of making up stuff and showing it around for yuks and laffs. Which is what much of the media political analysis is. I will admit here and now that much of the spleen I vent at them consists of pure jealousy at not being able to get away with that kind of thing, combined with realization that I am cursed with sufficient shame to not want to spend my career that way.

    See DougJ is not doing well on kicking the Politico habit. Must be as addictive as nicotine.

  85. 85.

    Resident Firebagger

    @Tim I:

    Making shit up will always be easier than trying to figure out what’s actually happening.

    This. Simply this.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @JL:

    If that’s true (and I don’t think it is), then the responsibility lands squarely on the shoulders of the democratic party. They were handed the legislative branch in 2006 (“impeachment is off the table”), and the Executive branch in 2008 (“let us look forward, not back”).

    Given that the 2000 election was decided based on who the press wanted to have a beer with (and it wasn’t that lame-o nerd Al Gore so let’s not look too closely at voting shenanigans in Florida), I’m not really getting how the Democrats of 2006 are to blame.

    We’ve been in this media climate for a while now. Much longer than the 2-4 years you’re claiming.

  87. 87.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    I left this in the comments section on the NYT but I’m not sure it’ll get published. It’s a little too partisan…

    I think there are many “angry” voters out there, and we made our voices heard when we went to the polls in 2006 and 2008. I am referring to the Dems and Independents who elected Dems to Congress in both years and Barack Obama as president. We were angry – try “furious” in many cases – about the decline in our once-great country during eight years of Bush/Cheney. We wanted a change and we got it.

    Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have passed HCR – long held-up as non-attainable by the brilliant “pundits” and “Beltway Insiders – after a summer of noise and fury from the TeaPartiers and the election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat. The act as passed may not have been as “progressive” as many Dems wanted it to be, but it is healthcare and hopefully future Congresses will build upon the base of what we have and pass a public option.

    Obama, with the help of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, got the votes and got it passed. Other things are being done in DC – finally, and after the wreckage of our government during the previous eight years. The US, as a country, is once-again esteemed in the world community without the “shoot-em, torture-em, and ask questions later”. I could go on and on, but the fact is that the Democrats have to get the “angry” voters to the polls this November to continue the work. Will we lose seats? Of course, probably seats we shouldn’t have won in the first place. Will it be the “Republican Rout” that the media and brilliant pundits have been working up in a lather about? No, I don’t think so. Not with Sharron Angle as the Republican candidate in November. By the way, I can’t believe any Nevadian thinks John Ensign is a better senator than Harry Reid. The mind boggles…

    Oh, and the “progressive Democrats” – many of whom are as delusional in their knowledge of how government works as the Tea Partiers on the right – cannot be bad sports because Obama hasn’t been as “progressive” as they wanted in his first year and a half in office and sit at home, sulking. They, like the rest of we Democrats have to accept the realities of politics and continue to support our party.

    No, it probably won’t be as “liberal” as we may want, but we are the Big Tent Party and we attract all sorts of people as Democrats.

  88. 88.

    Allison W.

    TPM also has an article saying that Fiorina was caught on mic dissing boxer’s hair and some other stuff. The most hilarious part of the recording was that she said Meg Whitman should not have interviewed with Hannity right after the primary win because—————get this————————-

    “Sean Hannity is not an easy interview”

    OMG!

  90. 90.

    jl

    @Allison W.:
    Hannity is not an easy interview for a Republican?

    What could Fiorina mean? It is not easy to make it look like a real interview rather than a faked up puff piece?

    The real bombshell here is that Fiorina said that Boxer’s hair is ‘so yesterday’. Bad news for Democrats! fer sher.

  91. 91.

    uloborus

    I wish to throw out a theory! It’s not really revolutionary, but I think it’s a slightly different take and worth considering.

    Industries are vulnerable to industry memes. Some ‘fact’ will become absolutely accepted common knowledge, particularly among the decision makers. It can be repeatedly disproved, and that will be either ignored, or circumstances will be reinterpreted in whatever twisted way is necessary to support the meme. And these people totally believe it and think they’re just being smart by interpreting what they see in terms of what they know is true. These memes can be so powerful they infect the rest of society. I can rail against the Animation Ghetto for hours, but consider the recent meme in the financial world that the housing bubble would never end.

    So, what if there’s some kind of meme in the news industry? There’s something they all ‘know’ that has nothing to do with reality? I mean, there’s an incredible consistency and universality in the ‘good news for conservatives’ slant of interpreting the news. Maybe it’s not deliberate corruption, or even laziness – those things are just convenient to the meme. But what would the meme be?

    ‘The Republicans are headed for a permanent majority’?

  92. 92.

    The Other Chuck

    @jl:

    No doubt trying to bait a Boxer supporter into saying something about Fiorina’s hair at which time she can gin up some victimhood about her having had cancer.

    Hey I’d be sympathetic but fact is she was rich enough to afford the treatment but she’d rather the rest of us just fuck off and die.

  93. 93.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I’m surprised no one has brought up the classic clip of Bush giving the finger to the camera at some point during his presidency. And it was his Vice President who told a Senator to “Go fuck yourself.”

    Where were the clutching pearls then, hmm? Oh, right, IOKIYAR.

  94. 94.

    Derek

    @ruemara:

    That second link is like…seriously fucking revolting. Jesus.

    Not to mention these geniuses didn’t stop and think, “Huh, what if some chick hasn’t had a kid and therefore can’t make breast milk?”

    Fucking retarded! If they want to get around the rule…just don’t fucking follow it!

  96. 96.

    handy

    @jl:

    I know this comment belongs in the category of “places which we principled libs dare not go” but judging from her victory speech last night along with her campaign ads, Ms. HP is an absolute bore, a completely unskilled politician who if not for her money would be way in over her head. I don’t see her cracking 40% in the general vote this November. She is really awful.

  97. 97.

    Elie

    @phoebes-in-santa fe:

    The media knows that they cannot let people “cool out” and just start having time to think. In a cooler, less emotional environment, no way does anyone pay attention to anything they say — cause they have no content anyway — so — they have to stir the pot, get people crazy or be crazy themselves to just get the readership, links or interest.

    People would like to I believe, turn them off. It is also true, that we are in a very divided country where the nature of the division is exacerbated by the continual inflammation and highlighting of that division (which our side does as well with all the name calling and positioning)

    We have lost much critical perspective. In the businesses and other organizations around the country, people are anxious and depressed — unable to feel good about themselves or our capability to overcome our challenges. Everyday, we are overwhelmed with our failures and the sense of impending doom. We solve nothing because over and over we are told that we can’t or that it doesnt matter.

    Only we can change this. We won’t because of the nature of blogging and the need for an adversarial and highly charged social and political environment to sell adverstisements and media/blog financial viability. There is no pay off in peaceful community building — only in carving out wins. I enjoy blogging, but I see its dangers and pitfalls…

  99. 99.

    AxelFoley

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    Welcome back,
    Your dreams were your ticket out.

    Welcome back,
    To that same old place that you laughed about.

    Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
    But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.

    Who’d have thought they’d lead ya (Who’d have thought they’d lead ya)
    Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

    Yeah we tease him a lot cause we’ve hot him on the spot, welcome back,
    Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @Violet:

    Uh oh. GregB used an unattached dash. IE users are gonna be ticked off.

    I kilt it. Any IE users wish to validate that they can now read / comment on this post?

  102. 102.

    Anne Laurie

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: Hey, I only switched to FireFox myself a few weeks ago. People use the browsers they have, and I’m never going to be techno-hip enough to mock anyone else.

    P.S. Welcome back! Give Charlie a head-skritch for me.

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