Anti-Dem or pro-GOP?

It’s being referred to in terms of natural upheaval. Tuesday’s election is predicted to be a tidal wave or an earthquake. Indeed, this event was prompted by nature….human nature.

But though meterologists, geologists or political pollsters can predict what’s coming with some degree of accuracy, what it means on a deeper level in the longer term is an important piece of analysis.

This has been a fascinating four years. Yes, four. The race for the presidency and the general election of 2008 began the day after the mid-terms of 2006, probably the earliest ever. Barack Obama was already out of the blocks and on his way. This will happen again Wednesday, no doubt, as pundits are still trying to figure out what happened Tuesday…

Which gets back to the importance of why the GOP is poised to clean up in this mid-term election. Why is that? This WSJ analysis is as good as any, and here’s a key snip:

Remarkably, there have been plenty of warning signs over the past two years, but Democratic leaders ignored them. At least the captain of the Titanic tried to miss the iceberg. Congressional Democrats aimed right for it.

For the first time in many decades, the Democrats owned it all, both houses of Congress and the Executive, a very liberal, assertive and aggressive White House with fewer checks and balances than any in recent history. A filibuster-proof majority allowed them to ignore the Republicans and even the majority will of the people, especially with a complicit media. How in the world did they blow that?

Obamacare, in a word. That was an unstoppable, runaway freight train and the Dems helped it blow through the heartland.

From the moment in May 2009 when the Congressional Budget Office announced that the president’s plan would cost a trillion dollars, most voters opposed it. Today 53% want to repeal it. Opposition was always more intense than support, and opposition was especially high among senior citizens, who vote in high numbers in midterm elections.

Rather than acknowledging the public concern by passing a smaller and more popular plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama insisted on passing the proposed legislation by any means possible.

Popularity? They control things. What concern have they for popular opinion?  And the ‘ways and means’ they control make it possible to do anything at will. And have the audacity to blame the Republicans for ‘not having any ideas’, when Americans paying attention to everything except big media knew all along that the Democrat super-majority weren’t even acknowledging Republicans’ existence, other than to blame them.

So are the Republicans really the smart and good ones, with the best ideas for America? Have they won the sentiment of Americans, after all?

No to both, or at least it’s not that superficial.

Since we don’t have a parliamentary government and therefore don’t have the need for a coalition of consensus as they do in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Israel, and others…we’re stuck with the two-party system. And the Tea Party saved us from having that challenged or splintered by remaining a breakaway of the Republican Party.

The reality is that voters in 2010 are doing the same thing they did in 2006 and 2008: They are voting against the party in power.

This is the continuation of a trend that began nearly 20 years ago. In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president and his party had control of Congress. Before he left office, his party lost control. Then, in 2000, George W. Bush came to power, and his party controlled Congress. But like Mr. Clinton before him, Mr. Bush saw his party lose control.

That’s never happened before in back-to-back administrations. The Obama administration appears poised to make it three in a row. This reflects a fundamental rejection of both political parties.

More precisely, it is a rejection of a bipartisan political elite that’s lost touch with the people they are supposed to serve.

Americans are rejecting the Democrat elite and establishment Republicans. They are flummoxed, to say the least.

Based on our polling, 51% now see Democrats as the party of big government and nearly as many see Republicans as the party of big business. That leaves no party left to represent the American people.

Voters today want hope and change every bit as much as in 2008. But most have come to recognize that if we have to rely on politicians for the change, there is no hope. At the same time, Americans instinctively understand that if we can unleash the collective wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, there are no limits to what we can accomplish.

Yes, we can.

Furthermore…

In this environment, it would be wise for all Republicans to remember that their team didn’t win, the other team lost. Heading into 2012, voters will remain ready to vote against the party in power unless they are given a reason not to do so.

So there.

Elected politicians also should leave their ideological baggage behind because voters don’t want to be governed from the left, the right, or even the center. They want someone in Washington who understands that the American people want to govern themselves.

So let them. There’s a radical idea.

Finally, one of the prognosticators followed the fault line to its source. And issued a sound warning.

0 Comment

  • One of the things I learned while getting my political science degree is that all elections are a referendum on the incumbent. More specifically, all elections are about the ruling party. This election will go Republican, not because America has seen the GOP light, but because they’ve seen the liberal darkness.

    It’s ironic that health care led to the 1994 Republican revolution and will likely produce something close this year.

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