If you’re at all like me, you’re starting to get antsy about the 2012 election. The economy seems to be going nowhere, jobs are not being created and our officials in Washington are mindlessly playing cat and mouse games, or, as Rush calls it, “Chess”. The better question is: Who is the cat and who is the mouse? I tend to think that Washington in general seems to think they are the cat and we, their constituents, are the mouse.
Au contraire! (That’s vichy-speak for “on the contrary”.) I see things differently. I see Washington as the mouse and all of us conservative, Tea Party types as the cat. We’re just waiting for the opportunity to pounce, but alas, we have to wait until next year.
Or do we?
What should we make of the current GOP field? What should we make of the spectacle of debate so far? In a word: NOTHING! The current GOP field is wasting its powder in a comical, yet tragic, circular firing squad. They just can’t seem to rise above the politics of the establishment’s nomination process. Further, they just can’t seem to distinguish themselves to the electorate (us) in a meaningful way. How sad….
As we watch this tragedy of the absurd, we hear the pundits in Washington suggest that more fodder is needed for the cannons of mediocrity. If I were a potential candidate thinking of getting into the race, I’d take pause before jumping in right now. Why participate in a circular firing squad? Why not wait until the smoke has cleared and you can see who has survived the month of September?
No, in my book, this is a waiting game. Although it’s always been a game of “last man standing”, it doesn’t have to be. The person who defines the game in his (or her) own terms can win. It just takes a steel spine to believe in your tactics. It also takes an ability to convince your troops to keep their powder dry.
Sarah Palin is playing the most significant cat and mouse game in our collective memory. While extolling her troops to keep their powder dry, she has served up a magnificent feast of issues that resonate across recent history. With her Iowa Tea Party speech, she turned the popular narrative to a discussion about the perils of corporate, crony-capitalism. Those perils are unfolding before our eyes as we learn about Gardasil, Solyndra and, most recently, LightSquared.
Nope, it appears that Sarah Palin has hit the nail on the head. The current field of GOP candidates is well-advised to follow her lead, or, of course, they can continue to blaze away in their current circular firing squad.
This reminds me of a play, only this time, the title should be “A funny thing happened on the way to 2012!”
Cross-posted from Roderic Deane