Congressional Black Sox

Want to know why the Democrats are going to make only marginal to modest gains in the mid-terms? Shit like this:

Is it really in the best interest of the Democratic Party to win control of the House and Senate in November? Might the party's long-term fortunes actually be helped by falling short?

As strange as it might seem, there are moments when losing is winning in politics. Even as Democrats are doing everything they can to win, and believe that victory is critical for future battles over real issues, some of the party's leading figures are also speculating that November could represent one of those moments.

From this perspective, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world politically to watch the Republicans struggle through the last two years of the Bush presidency. There's the prospect of continued conflict in Iraq, high gas prices, corruption investigations, Republican infighting and a gridlocked Congress. Democrats would have a better chance of winning the presidency in 2008, by this reasoning, and for the future they enhance their stature at a time when Republicans are faltering.

Because we can handle two more years of the GOP sending the federal government to the chop shop. Because there's only one thing American's love more than a loser, and that's someone who throws the game for some illusory reward.

This whole line of argument, "let's keep them in power so everyone can see what a horrible job they'll do, then they'll come running to us," has a long history. I heard leftists in 2000 (and 2004) saying that if Bush was elected and everything went to hell (which it did), the "people" would be ready to rise up and overturn capitalism/representative democracy/western civilization/etc." Heh.

Members of the Spartacus League used a similar line of reasoning in refusing to ally themselves with the German Social Democrats against Hitler and the Nazi party. I don't suppose we know how this political rope-a-dope went over during the 1930s, do we?

People are clearly dissatisfied with the folks who have been elected to run our federal government. They're clearly looking for an alternative. And "leading figures" in the Democratic Party opine about the political expediency of not winning either house back. Now that's the type of leadership that voters are craving! Nothing craven or calculating about the Dems at all!