Why the Upcoming Elections Don't Matter Much

The blogosphere is alive with projections for who will control the House and the Senate. Allow me to suggest that while the Senate is of some importance because of the judges, control of the House is not. Yes, I know all about the budget process and the ability to set the legislative agenda. Big whoop. Here's two reasons why I'm not buying into this doomsday talk of one party or another gaining a 10-seat majority in the House.

1. France is falling into anarchy. Read No-Pasaran. Read it regularly. Read Mark Steyn, too. CDR Salamander had a great post on the situation as well. A major world power is imploding from existential ennui. The French of all people have forgotten what it means to be French. The country that blew a gasket and decided to rename the word "email" because it was, horror of horrors, an English word. The French are allowing their cities to fall into urban warfare because they refuse to force their immigrants to become French.

When the French intifada moves into the next phase and buildings start exploding instead of just cars and buses, you'll see tourism drop off markedly. Tourism is France's #1 source of income. Tourism is a highly competitive market and once the customer base becomes convinced the place is unsafe, it will take a miracle to get them back. Mark Steyn tells us no miracle is on the way, only prolonged darkness.

In the near future, our news sources will have images of French cities burning. The elections of that era will focus on how we can keep it from happening here. I doubt that immigration amnesty and massive social spending will be the first thing most people turn to.

2. The Mainstream Media (MSM) is terminally ill. Recent circulation figures show a monotonic decline in sales. Some major newspapers dropped by as much as 8% in circulation. As much fun as it is to bash the airheads at the NY Times, they will be irrelevant in short order. Assume a 4% decline every 6 months. By the time the next election comes, the NYT will have lost 15% of its readers. The political landscape is shaped by the distribution of information. The editorial boards of the NYT, WaPo and LAT can jump off all the cliffs they want. The sound of their bodies hitting the rocks below is becoming fainter and fainter.

These two developments will shape the elections of 2008 and beyond and shape our country far more than any mid-term elections right now. Even a full-scale impeachment hearing would be washed away in the torrent of news as, say, Marseille is torched. Just how does a desperate, bankrupt nation deal with such unrest?

Politcians are trying to figure out which ass to kiss. The Democrats are flailing around trying to genuflect to the far left blogosphere and finding that self-destructive. In the past, all they had to do was romance the editorial boards of their local newspaper. The whole calculus of politics is changing. Just look at the free, viral marketing of Michael J. Fox's video. That got more hits than George Soros' money could buy. Ditto for the ad produced by David Zucker.

Yes, there are elections next week. I'm a dual-issue voter. At the national level it's all about terrorism. At the local level it's all about no more spending or debt. I'm just not kidding myself that the election is going to change the world. Other things already are. I'll leave you with one.


From the comments on YouTube, I saw that the soundtrack is an Italian fascist song. How apropos.

Update. More French anarchy here.