Have you ever bought any of those “amazing growing dinosaurs?” You know what I’m talking about? They are small rubbery figures that grow to about ten times their size when you put them in warm water and leave them overnight. Well that’s a pretty good metaphor for the Bush Republican Party. Like a dinosaur, their ideas are ancient and no longer relevant. And, like the toy, it takes some kind of catalyst - like say 9/11 - to make them appear bigger and better than they actually are.
The Bush dinosaur was taken out of the water about a year ago, and now it’s shrunk down to original size-a peanut.
So how small has Red America become?
Three years ago Paul Krugman’s collection of columns, The Great Unraveling, was published. Today he writes of a “great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country.”
In this column he makes this observation about the shrinking of Red America:
Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush’s approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush’s performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. If we define red states as states where the public supports Mr. Bush, Red America now has a smaller population than New York City.
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So what’s left of the conservative agenda? Not much.
That’s not a prediction for the midterm elections. The Democrats will almost surely make gains, but the electoral system is rigged against them. The fewer than eight million residents of what’s left of Red America are represented by eight U.S. senators; the more than eight million residents of New York City have to share two senators with the rest of New York State.
The dinosaour is small, but it still has an appetite, some very sharp teeth and, like the tuatara, it’s still hanging around.
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