Can you say “deluded?”

I have one more little balloon I’d like to prick before we move on to “bare breasts for peace.” (Just hold on.) I have to take issue with a meme that seems to have infected the brains of many Republicans. I’m not the first to note this, but I don’t think it can be repeated too often. It is best exemplified in a letter I read in the NYTimes on Tuesday:

“George W. Bush’s campaign tactics in 2000, the “Southern Strategy” and the Trent Lott episode are yesterdays’ news. The Republican Party, and all it stands for, won an overwhelming victory in the 2002 Congressional elections. Americans are pleased with the presiden’ts agenda just as it is.”

Ok. I won’t go into the obvious absurdity of Trent Lott being “yesterdays news” compared to the election returns because he is literally last week’s news at the very least. Of course, the election was last November’s news, before the Trent Lott scandal, but why pick nits?

The real delusion is this triumphant interpretation of the 2002 election. The Republicans gained two Senate seats and 6 House seats. This is constantly claimed to be an “overwhelming” victory.

Ah, but it is an historic victory because the party in the White House always loses in the first midterm, right? And, they usually lose by more than 25 seats in the House, too, so it was extra, super-duper overwhelming. It’s been more than 60 years since any President was so beloved by the American people that they voted for his party in the first election after his inauguration. Therefore, George W. Bush achieved something that makes him eligible for Mt. Rushmore if not canonization.

But…but…he didn’t defy history at all. And why is that?

Because he didn’t win the election in 2000, that’s why. If Al Gore had been in office as the voters wanted, there would have nothing remarkable about the 2002 GOP gains at all, except for the fact that they were so small.

Uncle Tony may have defied history, but Dubya didn’t.