No One Cares If It’s George W. Bush’s Fault

“A year after George W. Bush’s chopper swung away from the Capitol and disappeared from sight, voters seem to have put his presidency behind them; they’re no longer willing to blame Republicans alone for high unemployment and rising gas prices, for home foreclosures and tuition hikes. The crises that Bush bequeathed to Democrats have now officially become theirs, and the notion of a great liberal realignment seems as retro as Friendster.”

— Matt Bai offers his take on the collapse of the Obama’s support, which culminated yesterday in the loss of Ted Kennedy’s long-held Senate seat. (Sort of a cleaner version of this). No one cares anymore whether George W. Bush is responsible for creating all the problems, Barack Obama is in the driver’s seat now.

Not so fast though, Bai is among those who feel this is less a boon for the GOP than part of the sea change which is affecting the political establishment as a whole. In short, people support political candidates for the same reason they read blogs: they want to hear people who agree with them. “The old question of what a party can do for you, through patronage or populist economics, has largely been eclipsed by the question of whether a party shares your convictions.” But also our political allegiance reflects or Internet era consumption habits: short. Meaning, I suppose, that the entire world is shortly doomed to turn into the blogosphere.

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