Monday, August 2, 2010

Incumbents delenda est

Every day, we get another story about the whooping that the Democrats are fixin' to get this November. It's so bad that they think that George W. Bush's soon-to-be-published memoirs will stem the tide:

Democrats will receive a late campaign boost when the memoirs of former President George W. Bush are released in early November and voters spend October remembering the good old days of Republican recession, Republican corruption, the bank bailout that was begun by a Republican president and the countless failures under a Republican president and Republican Congress.

...

Imagine the mass depression and anger management problems on the Republican right when Democrats keep control, as the nation is reminded of the presidency of George W. Bush and the causes of the crash and the joblessness and the deficits and the bailout that began the last time Republicans had control.
I dunno. Maybe Brent Budowsky is writing for The Onion now. Whatever.

But a huge turnout of Democrats does not solve the problem. To be sure, it's a help, but focusing on Republican-Democrat is short term, tactical thinking. Strategic thinking is Incumbent-Challenger. Remember who some of the incumbents are, and what they've done:


You paid for that beautiful painting of a sea kitten fish on that plane, courtesy of Alaska's Rep. Don Young. To pay off his cronies At the request of the Alaska fishing industry, he inserted a $500,000 earmark into the 2005 budget.

Representative Young is a Republican. He's a porkmeister, and an incumbent.

Remember: Incumbents delenda est. Only when they fear for their seats will we break them to our will.


Hat tip: The Antiplanner.

12 comments:

Mike Golch said...

The really sad thing it that they blame the democrats for the failures,because the Dems did not stop the.Case in point is the Current republican running for the Governship of Ohio.He help Lemin Bros look the retirement systems of money before they went bellie up. than has the gaul to say he was just a office worker for the company.

Borepatch said...

Mike, the presumption is that they're all rats. "Power attracts the corrupt, or the corruptible."

Z@X said...

"...the presumption is that they're all rats. "Power attracts the corrupt, or the corruptible."

Agree. There may be exceptions, but none come to mind. I'm voting for fresh faces, without much regard to party affiliations.

bluesun said...

I like what Tam said awhile back--that she's ready to start changing the Chanel every time until a show she wants to watch pops up. The way things are going now I don't see too many more chances.

Eagle said...

Frankly, I fail to see how a Congress populated by a completely new freshman class - and I mean an ENTIRE Congress - could be any worse than what we have today.

One could hope that a new bunch of legislators who have NEVER served in Washington would be so befuddled by the experience and so "lost" that they'd be spending most of their time just trying to figure out HOW to do their jobs... and less time trying to figure out how to checkmate the other party.

Hey, I can dream - can't I?

NotClauswitz said...

Vote them out and have them lobotomized so they can do no further damage.

Art254711 said...

This ain't rocket science ... despite what the "ruling class" tells us.

Rule #1: Don't stuff yer pockets as you feed at the trough.

Rule #2: Don't defecate on the public trust

If we could increase the number of pols that can follow two simple rules, imagine where we could go.

wolfwalker said...

The federal government has something like 2,000,000 employees, and they're all part of the problem. Do you really think that simply voting out the 536 at the top of the garbage-heap will solve it?

Borepatch said...

Wolfwalker, it might. I have a post on this percolating.

But the short answer is "incentives matter". It all depends on what the incentives facing the 536 are. More on this later.

wolfwalker said...

Maybe so ... and maybe not.

After all, when those newbie congressfolk get to DC next January, they're going to need staffs. And there will be a lot of highly trained, experienced, well-connected staffers who used to work for the congressfolk they're replacing. I think a lot of those newbies (however many there are, and I remain unconvinced it will be enough to make a difference) will make the obvious and horribly wrong decision to hire those same staffers, and before they know it their actions will be controlled by those staffers -- most of whom were long ago perverted into the DC liberal-progressive-fascist mindset. Even those who don't make that mistake will find other traps waiting, in the form of bureaucrats who follow the Two Rules above all and have all the power they need to destroy any policy they don't like.

The names at the top may change, but the system will not. It is the Borg; when it meets opposition, it assimilates all it finds useful, and destroys the rest.

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

TOTWTYTR said...

Wolfwalker has a point, but I think a large enough wave of new Congresscritters will make some changes. First, they will get to rewrite the rules by which they work. Second, they don't have to hire existing staff to work in their office, although they probably will hire some experienced people.

One thing they can do is cut back on the size of the existing government by cutting funding for programs that do nothing.

Which is most of them.

Lissa said...

(Except Paul Ryan. 'Cause he's cool.)