More on GOP Fantasies

Readers here know I fret about how many American voters will choose the fantasy world on November 6th. I have written many times, like here, that this could well be the main determinant of this election. My Left Ahead listeners have heard that too.

The pending (9/10) issue of The Nation was disquieting and reassuring simultaneously to read similar thoughts. There, Peace and Disarmament Correspondent Jonothan Schell had his take on this. Subscribers to this essential maggy can read it online now here. [For heaven's sake and your mind's, subscribe if you don't.]

I come at this from the lamentable prophesy that at least 40% of us and maybe more than half will go with the fantasy. The often and easily disproved economic tripe of trickle-down, job-creator and similar lies is simply too enticing for too many. They want guns and butter, services with no taxes, unregulated pseudo-capitalism with that fairness only the greedy have always delivered to the masses.

Schell though goes through the problems but has an optimistic conclusion. He eviscerates the GOP/Ryan bag of dreams. He concurs that this is too powerful a call to fantasy, so many can't resist it.

Yet, this conclusion is:

The GOP base is fired up. But the cost could be high. Even today’s electoral politics may still have one foot remaining in the reality-based community. Ordinary voters may not be much like Diogenes, carrying a lamp through the world in search of an honest man, but they are much less likely to be passionately attached to a long list of fantasies than the GOP fanatics. That this is so could be a saving grace of American politics in our otherwise spin-stupefied era.

I remain to be convinced. I think the danger is far greater than that. I am not sanguine enough to trust the majority of Americans to be firmly grounded in reality. I still call for Obama and the DNC's crew to hammer the truth until it rings in everyone's ears.

Maybe Schell is correct. We should not depend on the kindness and rationality of millions of strangers. Therein lies the way of Blanche DuBois.