I'm sure this will come as no surprise to anyone. The GOP is vowing to use the financial infrastructure they created in 2010 to continue pounding the President and Democrats in order to take over the government in 2012. This New York Times report lays it out pretty clearly:
Buoyed by the impact their blistering, anti-Democratic campaigns have had this year, two of the largest new conservative groups helping Republicans are planning to keep pushing their agenda in the lame-duck session of Congress that will begin in two weeks and are already laying the groundwork for a more aggressive campaign in the 2012 presidential race.
[...]
Robert M. Duncan, the chairman of American Crossroads, which, like Crossroads GPS, was started with help from the Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, said he also informed major donors late last week that “research and development” was under way to make the groups even more effective in the next election, part of a pitch for continued investment toward a larger goal.
“It’s a bigger prize in 2012, and that’s changing the White House,” Mr. Duncan said. “We’ve planted the flag for permanence, and we believe that we will play a major role for 2012.”
Gosh, that reads like they're bragging about buying the government, doesn't it? It sure does to me.
This effort is the accumulation of thirty years' work. They moved all the pieces into place for 2010, and plan to reinforce them for 2012. It may be the Koch brothers who are getting the heat, but don't be fooled by them -- there are many, many, many people out there with the money and the means to buy the US government lock, stock and barrel if we let them.
The truth is that they can buy ads, and they can kill a forest with mailers, and they can own media outlets, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it, other than get people to start thinking with their heads instead of the instant-gratification mode we seem to live in.
No one will care about those ads if we can recapture the populists that were hijacked by the Tea Party nonsense. Not one. But it's going to require constant engagement and a willingness to actually stay focused.
