GOP = No Jobs

If there's a term for this level of stupidity, I don't know what it is. "Fiscal moronitude" maybe or "economic dildoism." There's an idea out there that government spending hurts the economy. I know. Weird.

I don't even understand how this argument is supposed to work. Probably because no one ever explains it. But the size of the deficit is supposed to be a measure of how bad the economy is. Again, not really sure why this is, it's just so obviously is -- according to Republicans, tea partiers, and various and sundry morons. Never mind that people are buying all those bonds and everyone seems to be confident in America's ability to pay down her debt, debt itself is the worst thing ever. Without any evidence at all, we can be totally confident that deficits will doom us forever and all, amen.

So the smart thing, as conventional idiot wisdom will tell us, is to cut spending. Cut, cut, cut, and, when in doubt, cut. Government is a huge spender in our economy and the smartest thing we could ever do is pull all that money out of the economy, because... OK, you just lost me. This is stupid.

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Relentless

I think I've probably brought this up before, but humans are obsessive and relentless. Other than our intelligence, that's our evolutionary advantage. As predators go, we're slow and weak. How did we survive before we developed weapons? By being the most unrelenting chase predator in the world. We're built to run. Not fast, but for a long time. It's why we sweat.

You spot a gazelle and you chase it. It bounds away easily, getting far enough ahead that it feels safe. And then we're there again, tracking it. It runs, it stops again, we catch up. It runs, it stops again, we catch up. Our weapon isn't stealth or strength or speed, it's endurance. We exhaust our prey. It's in our nature. And the prey's belief that it's far enough away to be safe is its undoing.

I bring this up because Republicans are the gazelle right now. They're way freakin' out there, far enough to forget they're involved in a chase. And we're behind them, relentless.

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OK, So That Didn't Go So Well...

The American people have chosen stupidity. I can't think of any other way to put it. Here in Wisconsin, Russ Feingold fell to a nitwit gigolo. How crushingly depressing. Meanwhile, the unfortunate Harry Reid practically coasts to reelection. I take comfort in the fact that the alternative to Reid was much, much worse. Where do we go from here? Nowhere. Government is now hopelessly broken.

Sam Stein, Huffington Post:

It was a historic session -- one of the most productive since the New Deal -- but in the end, it was brief. Four years after taking over Congress with the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrats lost control of the chamber in a devastating, wipeout election.

And as the political practitioners and election pundits take stock of what happened, perhaps the one conclusion all sides agree with is this: if government seemed stalemated and futile before, the next two years will bring new meaning to deadlocked.

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GO VOTE!

It's the big day. Like Superbowl Sunday, only important. This is going to be a short one. I'm still waiting to hear back from Wisconsin Democrats, but I'm afraid I might've signed up too late to get a slot on a phonebank today. He who hesitates is lost, I guess. Luckily, I've still got a blog with some reach, so you people GO VOTE!!

Normally, I plan out my morning post beforehand, but today I'm winging it. All I really want to do is get you out that door and into the polling place. GO VOTE!!

Did I mention yet that you should GO VOTE? I hope so, because you should definitely GO VOTE!!

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Get Out The Vote

This is my last long form post before election day and my last report on phonebanking for Wisconsin Democrats. Right now, I'm watching Rep. Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, defend his prediction that dems will retain their majority in the House of Representatives on MSNBC. But Van Hollen is engaging in punditry -- there's little evidence to back up his claim, other than stronger than normal turnout among Democrats in early voting. But that higher early turnout is to be expected. News that the GOP-supporting business groups had planned a $75 million dark money push in the final days of the campaign caused Democrats to push early voting -- i.e., "vote now, before a wave of attack ads change your mind." Because of this last-minute push, Republicans didn't want people to vote early -- or, at least, not as badly as they might in another cycle. Still, it might make the difference in many races.

Gallup reports that "52% to 55% of likely voters preferring the Republican candidate and 40% to 42% for the Democratic candidate on the national generic ballot -- depending on turnout assumptions." And everyone agrees that turnout is the key. The danger of lower turnout here is not only a Democratic concern; some Republicans may be so convinced of the inevitability of the "big Republican wave" that they think they needn't bother. Call it the "Tortoise and the Hare scenario." This also may make a difference.

Yesterday, I spent a couple hours on the phone at the teachers' union hall here in Madison. My contacts were mostly positive and the campaign is focusing on Get Out The Vote efforts. If turnout is the key, then turnout is the top job. Democrats seem to feel that a 4% increase in projected turnout in key districts will be enough to pull it out for both incumbent Senator Russ Feingold and gubernatorial hopeful Tom Barrett. My guess on which districts these are: Madison and Milwaukee. Wisconsin Democrats have a larger team of volunteers than in any other state, thanks in part to efforts by MoveOn.org.

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