Like most things with this Administration I do not understand the Bergdahl trade. If you have to make this deal the smartest political move would have been for the President to solicit support from the Senate and maybe get Senator Feinstein to explain the case to the public. If you do not have to make this deal then you should respect the wisdom of the Democratic Senators and Congressman trying to get re-elected this Fall and ask the Taliban for better terms. The clock was ticking and everyone knew that Bergdahl was damaged goods. There is a good case that he is a deserter. Desertion is a serious offense. Although the last deserter to be put to death was in 1945, I doubt the Army can be lenient since several people allege that Bergdahl was an enemy collaborator that caused the deaths of several soldiers. I suspect that several soldiers and some family members of the dead soldiers would be in favor of the death penalty. The families of the slain soldiers have to be wondering whether their son’s death was in vain? Even if Bergdahl is lucky and the courts are lenient, you have to ask the question why did the Administration go out of their way to make a trade for a person the courts are going to lock up for two years? This is an ugly deal which screams kick me, I’m stupid. With deals like this the best thing for the Democratic party right now is for President Obama to go to Hawaii and play golf for six months.

Obviously this trade will not play well with the military. The Duffel blog is all over that with their satirical Meteorologists Forecast Bowe Bergdahl Shit Storm piece. Less obvious but maybe more important is that this trade does not play well with the middle class. Unlike the rich and the poor the middle class has a vested interest in a government that works. The rich and the poor seem to do best when the government screws up. The middle class is stuck with the unenviable decision, do I go with the “stupid party” or with the party that says every scandal over the last six years was due to their stupidity. The Census data seems to indicate that the middle class got the message. As the Gateway Pundit points out in his article, EXCLUSIVE: Census Data Reveals GOP Is Party of MIDDLE CLASS by 2-1 Ratio, the party of the working class is the Republican Party. FDR’s New Deal coalition is unraveling and the Bergdahl trade shows that the Democrats have finally given up trying to woo the middle class. If the Democrats are going to win in the Fall, they are going to win without middle class votes. I can hear it already, we don’t need no mine workers in this new, improved Democratic party.

Hope and Change is just a bad memory now. The middle class is reluctantly going to the party that does the least harm. For all of those moms who voted for Bush in 2004 because he was strong leader against terrorism, the Bergdahl trade reminds them it is time to come home to the party who has not forgotten 9/11. I saw Mad Magazine’s new movie idea, Trading Private Bergdahl, over at Althouse. I have to concur with Meade who said:

If I’ve lost Mad, I’ve lost Middle America.