From This Modern World

Eight long years
... The Republicans tried to win with hate and fear and division, and instead they failed. Spectacularly, definitively, repudiated in a landslide. And you know what I hope, at this moment? That Joe the Plumber becomes a widely-used symbol for all that has been wrong with America. That tv commentators invoke his name as shorthand for the politics of stupidity — “Maybe Joe the Plumber thinks we need to put all the Danish-Americans in internment camps, but no rational person agrees!” — and a heartfelt chuckle is had by all, and no more need be said, so universal is the understanding.

I very much want that to be the legacy of Joe the Plumber.

As noted in previous post, we have three pretty good case-studies illustrating the failure of "hate, fear, and division" and character assassination as campaign tactics.

What to do when the supposed intellectuals of the right - I have in mind William Kristol - embrace Sarah Palin, who has been revealed by Fox News (!) to have believed that Africa is a country, not a continent!

In fact, I honestly hope that Sarah Palin & Joe the Plumber are the future leaders of the Republican Party! To whom will such a party appeal? To the 25% that still think W is doin' a heckuva job! - not to "moderate" Republicans, not to Independents, not to the modern equivalent of "Reagan Democrats", not to George Will... Only to those who believe the antediluvian Eden is a real, physical place.

Now that's the Republican Party I'd like to run against!