The long division

There are two kinds of people in the world - those who divide people into two groups and those who don't.

My bro in Houston writes to say that on the AM talk station down there, yesterday's topic was how Ace lost the election because he wasn't conservative enough, and if it weren't for Trig's mom the pounding would've been even worse. My bro says he hopes the Repubs keep thinking like that, and I agree.

There are two kinds of Republicans - those who are convinced Trig's mom is the future of the party, and those who will start voting Democratic in 2012. Unless something totally unforeseen happens, Palin is going to scare off everybody who has the capacity for analytical thought and the electoral map will continue to look the same as it does today. That'll suit me fine.

A lot of people who vote Repub these days are getting up in years, and before long they'll be moving on to their heavenly rewards. Barry grabbed a big chunk of the younger vote Tuesday, the people who'll be voting the next 40 years or so, and I'm not seeing a desire for hardcore conservatism in that crowd. The Republicans are like old men on park benches, remembering their glory years as the world passes them by. They can't let go of the Reagan era, which ended twenty years ago, before many new voters were in preschool. Since my political identity is Rabid Anti-Republican, I hope they'll continue to live in the fantasy world they're in today.

My bro and I both think American government works best when it's divided between the parties. It always seems like the periods we perceive as America's good times occur when one party controls the White House and the other controls Congress; it's worked out that way during my adult years. My bro thinks maybe the Democrats will screw things up by pushing an agenda that's too liberal and open the door for a GOP comeback in two years.

He may be right. If it happens, we'll be back to divided government and we can see where it takes us. On the other hand, there's a basic difference between the GOP and Democrats that may keep that from happening.

The psychological factors that make them conservative cause Republicans to have an easy time behaving monolithically. Like sheep, they tend to flock together around their leader and have no problems moving in lockstep. This tendency accounts for the predicament the GOP is in right now - if the leader is a worthless dipstick, the whole party's moving in lockstep with him and they all get blamed for his fuckups.

The psychological factors that make them liberal cause Democrats to be incapable of behaving like Republicans. Democrats never move in lockstep and have a hard time uniting behind any leader. I can already see evidence of this fact in the public fretting among Dems over Barry's selection of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff. In Congress, a lot of the Democrats elected in 2006 and this year took their seats from Republicans or in red states. The Blue Dog Dems aren't about to line up behind the Dennis Kucinich agenda, and Obama has proven he'll look for compromises and pragmatic solutions. Right now, I'm just enjoying the idea that we're finally rid of Bush and Cheney, and I'm not ready to start worrying about President Obama.