Winning Isn't Everything, It's The Only Thing

[phantom power]

I've argued before that Americans worship winners and they don't really care about unfair process. This is the nation that reveres the quote "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." I think the best example is the stolen election in 2000, in which most people seemed to believe that the partisan manipulation of the system in Florida and the biased Supreme Court decision were actually a fairly decent way to figure out who should be president in what was essentially a sudden death playoff --- the one who did whatever was necessary to make it happen was the one who was most qualified, simply by dint of his ability to come out on top at the end of the "game." (We see that same ethos on Wall Street and among those who think it's perfectly fine to torture and hold innocent people in jail indefinitely.) In America, the operating principle is that the ends justify the means.

Similarly, the party in power is expected to do what's necessary to pass its agenda. If it can't, it is held responsible for the failure, not those who stopped them from doing it. This is particularly true in the present circumstance. The president blaming the "do nothing congress" only works when the congressional majority is of the opposition party. When it's your own party, you just look like a weak leader and people think the underdog Republicans are simply "playing the game" better and so deserve to "win."

And there is another dimension to this which especially applies to the Obama administration. Since he ran explicitly on the promise to end the bickering, change Washington and create a post-partisan consensus, people see the failure of those things to materialize as a measure of his failure to deliver on his promise. This president is more hampered than most in making the (legitimate) argument that the Party of No is to blame for the nation's troubles. I didn't subscribe to the "personal magic" theory of the presidency, so I had no illusions about Obama's ability to keep this promise. But I think a fair number of people believed it and the rest think it's the job description to beat the opposition with hardball politics. Failing at either makes him the loser, not the other side.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-america-winning-isnt-everything-its.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. It Is All About the Media and Which Side Supports Their Parent Companies' Agenda

The rhetoric changes completely depending on which side wins. If the Repiggies win (or steal) the election, they are "winners" and the Democrats become "whiners" if they say anything at all.

If the Democrats win, the Repiglickin media pushes the "birthers" and the "teaparty" people and anyone else who can help to tarnish the win, the Repiggies become the party of "NO" and the media back them every step of the way.

It pretty much always works, and even when it doesn't, the media will say it did. It is very much in there intere$t to do so.