Monday musings

Now Republicans — who first led the fight for the abolition of slavery, then helped pass civil rights legislation with liberal Democrats, then profited off of a morally suspect Southern strategy — have an African-American national committee chairman who has successfully recruited more conservative black candidates for office than any other GOP chairman in history.

Things change when you least expect it.

Bob Bennett, the Utah senator, thought that he had the support of his folks back home to take the leadership on issues like TARP and healthcare. He learned the hard way that being bipartisan sometimes means having to say you’re sorry to your right-wing base, who just didn’t take sorry for an answer. They bounced him faster than you can say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The conventional wisdom was that Charlie Crist had no chance of winning in Florida once he became an Independent. But what if Charlie gets most of the Democratic vote and 35 percent of the Republican vote and all of the independent vote?

“Drill, baby, drill” seemed like a good campaign theme late in 2006, then again in 2008, but it really never helped the Republicans win any elections. Energy independence sounds really good in theory, unless, of course, it means that it makes gas cost more than $5 a gallon. The fact of the matter is that the free market gets you the lowest price for a tank of gas, no matter where the oil comes from. And ultimately, that is the only thing consumers care about. Drilling off the coasts of Florida or California? I think you can safely say those days have come and gone.

Everybody assumes that America was going to continue to rule the world. Then everybody assumed that China was going to start calling the shots and America was done for. America could go the way of Greece and go bankrupt. That is certainly a possibility. But what if China’s bubble collapses and its oppressive political structure collapses with it? What happens then? What if America starts making some simple choices to cut spending, like raising the retirement age, making rich people pay a bit more for their healthcare, cutting back on pensions, and other small things that will save a lot of money? And what if the economy comes back, and tax revenues go up, and the rich and the poor start paying more in taxes because the Bush tax cuts expire? Well, then, we might be in a good spot to continue to lead the world.

Things change. That is the nature of life.

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