I wrote a similar diary around 4 years ago called "They're Scared."
As Yogi said 'It's déjà vu all over again."
What I'm seeing this time is a very serious reluctance on the part of my many conservative (I call them conservapublicans) friends to engage in debate this time around. I've been defriended several times on Facebook this election season. In an of itself that bothers me not at all, but I think it is significant. Rather than engage in any kind of debate in a position of supporting their candidate, they simply close off the conversation and refuse to participate.
You see, four years ago these same friends were in my face as it were about the lousy candidate Obama was and how McCain was going to hand Obama his... well, you know. This time not so much. Oh, the hatred of Obama is still there. Even when it's not racially motivated, it's still there. But, unlike last time, there is no love expressed for the candidate. At least last time there were some positive things to be said about McCain. This time; not so much. No one's said anything positive about Romney this time around. At least to me, that is. No one really seems to like him. The conservative Christians will never truly trust and adore a Mormon. The 'conservative' economists know that Romney's economic ideas are at best meaningless, and at worst bad for the economy. The 'big gubment' types cannot get behind the true father of Obamacare.
Picture the true believers as Luke in that scene with Darth as Romney. "Noooooo!!"
Not only is Romney unpalatable to them, but Ryan's no better. Oh, when he was picked to pander to the base, they were quite happy for a while. But Lyin' Ryan is no Palin. The same friends who defended Palin with "She has been a governor after all, which is so much more than Obama" or "G-d, she's so hot" are surprisingly silent on Ryan. My Republican friends who are runners cannot bring themselves to defend or outright support Ryan. I'm not a runner, but I guess there is a code of honor about knowing your times, and grossly misrepresenting them is a big no no. Even as they will boost Romney for being a good private sector businessman (and I'm not saying that I'll ever agree with that...), they're at a loss with Ryan who has had no private sector experience to speak of. He typifies 'big gubment' people who have 'nursed at the taxpayer teat' (not my choice of words, but what I have heard hurled at democrats through the years) their whole careers.
The republicans are running out of cards to play. Romney's a lightweight running against a wartime president (G-d I hate that phrase...) who is not afraid to act like a president. Cue one of the best movie lines brought to light in the real world:
The video cuts it off, but after that, the President went on to say: "I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn't return. I've shared the pain of families who've lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who've lost their jobs."
There goes the whole experience card. More experience beats posers:
(I tried to do the 'start at' parm on the video but could not get it to work. Sorry about the first 10 seconds or so where there's no real picture.)
Compare and contrast the above with this:
I heard four years ago and eight years ago the phrase 'flip flopper' more times than I cared to count. Oddly enough on the rare occasions when a republican friend will engage me in debate, this phrase is curiously absent. Wonder why?
I'm not a big fan of single party rule by either party, but it really looks to me like the process we have at this time is crippling the republican party at a national level (presidential, at least) force. Romney has had to tack so far to the right to survive the primaries that it's impossible to turn the ship now. No one would believe him. The true believers will simply jump ship, and the moderates he so desperately needs will never board the ship. I'm not sure how any republican candidate could pull it off under these circumstances.
Oh, the reason for the title of this diary:
The key part of the lyrics is here:
CALLAHAN
Now when you choose a law career
The moment you embark
There is that joke you're bound hear
A lawyer is a shark
Ignore that, it's simplistic and it's dumb
Only some of you will turn out sharks, just some
The rest are chum
Our topic is blood in the water
Kids, it's time you faced
Law school is a waste
Oh yes, unless you acquire a taste for
Blood in the water
Dark and red and raw
You're nothing until the thrill of the kill
Becomes your only law