Politics is indeed strange at times. Voters upset with D.C. gridlock just voted for more of the same. Politico’s Ben White explains:
“[B]oth sides have made it abundantly clear that the chances for significant legislative accomplishment in the 114th Congress beginning next year are pretty close to zero.” Obama still plans to take executive action on immigration reform that Republicans oppose. Meanwhile, GOP leaders renewed their commitment to repeal Obamacare, but Senate Democrats have enough votes to block such legislation and Obama would veto it in any event. “So it now appears that the next Congress will open in January with Republicans furious at Obama over immigration and hell-bent on hacking away at Obamacare by any means available,” White says.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102164493?trknav=homestack:topnews:1
Exit polls show the economy is voters’ top concern. But Republicans, White says, can’t fix the economy:
“[I]ncomes for the middle class have not gone up since 1999. The wealthiest slice of Americans — the famed 1 percent — received 95 percent of all income gains in the first three years of this recovery. And part of the reason for the decline in the jobless rate is a reduction in the labor force to its smallest size in three decades. These are big, tectonic issues with no quick fixes, and they now land squarely in the laps of House Speaker John Boehner and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the likely next Senate majority leader.”
Some Republicans, White says, recognize the danger their party faces:
“In Colorado, GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, who defeated incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Udall, warned that Republicans could suffer stinging defeats in two years, when the electoral map favors Democrats, if the party does not rack up accomplishments on the economy. ‘It was not a message for Republicans or against Democrats — but a warning,’ Gardner said of the 2014 election.”
But acting on that will be tough “for a party that does not even agree” on what needs to be done, is internally divided, and has firebrands who simply want to undermine Obama and the Democrats.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/republican-economy-2014-election-112618.html#ixzz3IP6iV9gO
Here’s what I think. Without doubt a wide swath of Americans, of all political persuasions, are upset with how things are going in the economy, nation, world, and their lives. They’re worried about their future, and their children’s future, and all they see is political leaders waging partisan warfare and a government that can’t get things done. So, of course, they’re frustrated.
But some of their distress is of their own making; for example, many families have incompetently managed their finances. That’s not something that can be cured by electing different leaders. A good deal of the economic pressure on the middle class is due to vast structural changes that make American labor less valuable, such as globalization pushing down wages and technology displacing traditional jobs. This paper by Prof. Robert J. Gordon of Northwestern University explains the economy’s evolution through the industrial and information revolutions, and then shows why many of the changes unfavorable for U.S. middle class workers aren’t readily amenable to political solutions because they have much deeper causes than just policy choices:
http://www.cepr.org/sites/default/files/policy_insights/PolicyInsight63.pdf
Voters also feel bedeviled by a raft of other troubles, including terrorism, for which there is no quick or easy solution. They’re frustrated by the U.S. being trapped in endless wars, but instead of the Cold War’s demise bringing greater harmony and peace, new dangers bubbled up in the world’s cauldron, although here Obama’s presidential leadership is justifiably criticized for being weak which leaves voters hungry for a more forthright and decisive leader. In short, Democrats need a JFK or Truman now, and don’t seem to have one.
Republicans try to sway elections with anti-democratic practices like gerrymandering and voter suppression, but this is just playing around the margins, as their effect is limited to maybe 1% to 2% of the total vote, and therefore can swing only very close races. What happened this Tuesday wasn’t close, it was a tidal wave of discontent that swamped the ruling party after it failed to effectively govern. You can argue the Republicans caused it by adopting a strategy of no-compromise obstructionism, and that poorly-informed voters rewarded the bad guys for their bad behavior, and that Obama should have grown more spine and been tougher on the Republicans. I wouldn’t dispute any of this. And I think now the Republicans will have the same problem: If they can’t produce, and I don’t see how they will, it’ll be their turn to get punished by disgruntled voters in the 2016 election.
But in any case, I feel strongly that Democrats must be more heedful of, and pay homage to, the fundamental values that drive the popular psyche and make America tick: The quintessential American work ethic and belief in hard work as a means to get ahead, that we’re the world’s most successful nation because we’re smarter and work harder and do things better than anyone else. Americans simply want to believe in themselves. That’s why they voted for Reagan’s “morning in America,” and it’s what they looked for in Obama when he promised hope and change. Those who bothered to vote on Tuesday punished him and his party because of a perception, whether right or wrong, the country got gridlock instead. This election was no more complicated than this; and if Democrats don’t get this message, then all bets are off in 2016, and the tactical political maps for Senate seats and electoral votes, and demographic analyses, and so forth, may not mean a damn thing
. What the voters seem to be saying is, “We don’t like what you’re selling, and we’re not buying it anymore.”