The conventional wisdom
Conventionally, there isn’t any wisdom, but this has not prevented use of the phrase “conventional wisdom” throughout our squalid history. It’s a troubling phrase, because it seems to suggest, “Here’s what unimaginative, borderline-sentient people would think, and I agree with them”. Such self-styled wisdom has little to recommend it. Of course, anytime someone is trying to sell you their own thoughts as “wisdom”, be as careful as if they were trying to get you to eat in a restaurant with “gourmet” in its name.
I am nervous about the upcoming election. I think the Democrats have largely fumbled it, because a reelection campaign should be a referendum on the incumbent, and they’ve allowed it to become, in many ways, a referendum on John Forbes Kerry. Let’s face facts: he can’t take that kind of scrutiny.
This is a guy whose last election campaign, to retain his seat as a Democratic senator in Massachusetts, a state that has an entirely Democratic Congressional delegation, came close to being derailed. Some people have described this positively — because Kerry came from behind to beat the guy in the end, showing he is a “closer”. But why was he ever losing? If you can’t slam dunk it as a Democrat in Massachusetts, maybe you are not a “closer” but a “loser”.
Meanwhile, the political blogs have mostly moved on, perhaps thinking there is nothing more to be done about Mr. Kerry, because he will “obviously” win. Now they are talking more and more about Ginny Schrader, a little old lady from Pennsylvania, who sees an opportunity to take a Congressional seat because the Republican incumbent retired. I don’t know what her chances of winning are, though they seem pathetic. What I do know is: who cares? We are not going to retake the House this year. It’s more likely we’d win the Senate (long shot) or the Presidency (it will be close). My fear is that on November 3 the blogs will say:
It appears that the blogs see Ginny as a chance to be big fish in a little pond: we could get her elected. We could raise money for her. We could be heroes. Yes, it is important to be personally involved in races; yes, it is amazing how much money can be raised over the Internet now. But throughout the Dean Experience up until today, there has been a disproportionate focus on the new-found “power” of chubby white guys on the Internet, and perhaps less on picking some candidates who can resonate with the actual voters. A lot of these Internet-based white guys have never even noticed politics before. How do they know what is going to work?
The conventional wisdom is that they don’t.
by Jack, October 9, 2004 12:34 AM | More from Election 2004 | More from The Damned Human Race
Within the Chronology
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