I work in the ad industry. I began as an Art Director, but unlike many I entered the business through the commercial production department instead of the bullpen. I was originally a Production Coordinator on commercials but yearned for more control over the creative reigns. My skills were in organizing productions and video editing, but I had also mastered PageMaker, Photoshop and many other digital programs early in the game just for survival purposes.

When I arrived as the first digital art director at a very prominent ad agency in New York back in 1994, the production department there was abuzz. The daily debate with most of the mechanical guys (these are the men and women who would cut and paste together ads and brochures with xerox type, litho images and glue) was whether computers would take over their jobs. Most were unwilling to consider it, always promoting the benefits and accuracy of doing it manually, the flexibility you had with the client and the time necessary to get it right. All good arguments, but there was one thing some of them didn’t know that I did: it was already over for them.

I would try to coax some of them into learning a few things - Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark if they could. Others were too intimidated. Within a few years, all their jobs would be transformed into computer jobs.

You see, I learned early on that there are no givens in this world and if you don’t know which way the wind is blowing, you’ll be left behind with a flat sail in an empty ocean. Beyond that, just because you think you’re right one day does not guarantee it will be true the next. Even today, as one who runs his own agency, I’ve always got my ear to wall, looking for the next tools that will appear quietly and make many dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs of today, in the political spectrum, are the Republicans. What they didn’t learn years ago was that their standard methods for doing business - disregarding reality unless it fit their expectations, governing through division and mistakening solidarity with their President as a strength - was predictably short-lived. Human beings can only stomach negativity for so long before wanting some relief. They can also only be scared for so long before becoming numb. The big mistake our current pathetic crop of Republicans make - day after day - is believing that the wind is at their back. Their aching need to obstruct and divide (which I feel is less ideology and more sour grapes) is the practice of old.

What many knew that even Karl Rove didn’t know is that no one could possibly welcome a permanent Republican majority, just as a permanent Democratic majority is fantasy. To attempt achieving one at all is a farce. Well, they attempted it - and look at where they are now.

Many of the folks I used worked with all those years ago are now either retired or computer production people. They changed with the times or packed up their T-squares. They were all good, decent people, some just short-sighted. There are also many decent Republicans, but, unfortunately, quite a few who are not (and, mark my words, you’ll see them very soon as lobbyists). They may not know it yet, but there are quite a few cardboard boxes waiting for them in their near future. Some of them may learn a few new tricks, find the religion of bipartisanship and save themselves. For those that don’t, we’ll see them in wax at the Museum of Unnatural History, debating with a neanderthal man over creationism.

Politics john boehner, Karl Rove, Obama, republican obstruction