Colin McEnroe sums up the disconnect between the Beltway crowd and the people of Connecticut on the Blumenthal issue. This is chronic with the insiders, the best example being their absolute astonishment that the majority of people in this country were sophisticated enough to realize that they had a pretty good president in Bill Clinton (especially considering the alternatives) despite his peccadillos. It galls them no end when the folks in the hinterland refuse to dance to their tune, a tune, as Bob Somerby points out, that usually involves bringing down a Democrat.
Not that the disconnect doesn’t flow in both directions. The overwhelming consensus in Washington is that Rand Paul hurt himself by retroactively opposing the Civil Rights Act. Don’t be so sure. There’s lots of folks down that way who miss those segregated lunch counters. Now, if the Democrats can smoke him out on issues those same folks care about, like Social Security, minimum wage, worker safety, etc., it might be a different story. Paul may be a little like David Duke, garnering more votes than the polls suggest because some people don’t want to admit, even to a pollster, that they’re racists.
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