As we all try to sort out whether the recent Washington Post/ABC News poll reflects any Republican-base rejection of Donald Trump's silly McCain comments — or whether it's too early to tell — we cats are trying to decide why our friends the Freepers and other teabag whackjobs are attracted to Trump in the first place.
The consensus among the Washington pundit class seems to be this: They're mad. Really, really mad. Mad about people who don't look like them getting stuff they don't deserve, mad about gay people getting married, mad that the Civil War has finally ended (even though as a consolation prize, they get the Allman Brothers, and NASCAR.) Barack Obama has been in power for almost eight years, and they're furious about it!
Hmmmm. We cats remember a similar frustration on our side of the aisle, not too long ago. It seems to us that we Democrats reacted differently.
Take 2004, for instance. Sure, we were upset about The Worst Person Who's Ever Lived and his phony "mushroom cloud" invasion of Iraq and the whole atmosphere of "Americans better watch what they say." But we were outnumbered and outgunned and feeling very flat. But then a guy named Howard Dean started pushing back against all the Bush-Cheney crap, and he was using the tools of the early Internet to do it. It was energizing and exciting — until he came in third in Iowa. To this day, we cats love Howard Dean, but his anger and frustration didn't cut it at the polls.
So by 2008, after four more years of The Worst Person's mismanagement and non-leadership, we had every right to be angrier still: about Katrina, the VA scandal, the August 6, 2001 PDB, Roberts and Alito, the Kyoto Protocol and climate change, reproductive rights, the financial meltdown, and the endless, endless Worst Person vacations. The list goes on. But we Democrats didn't react with xenophobia, insults and rage. Instead, we reacted with "Yes, we can."
Democrats get mad, but we understand that mad doesn't wear well. People want to be inspired, not pissed off. So in the interest of the country, we hope that the GOP is never tempted to leave "mad" behind. We cats PURR.
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