The People Have Spoken… Barry, Can You Hear Us Now?

Posted by Larry Miller on November 2, 2010 under Why | Be the First to Comment

It has been an interesting evening watching the election returns and trying to make some sense of them. Political prognosticators are something like economists in that if you would lay them all end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion. It appears that we, in the US, have a double minded electorate.

As this is written there are a few things that we can see. Some are positive and some negative for our country, but nonetheless, this is the world we have to live with for the next two years. While we cannot go back and correct mistakes made this cycle, we can learn from them… and it is essential that we learn from them.

At the top of many people’s list is looking at what happened in Delaware. In what was a disappointment for many tea partiers, Christine O’Donnell came up short in her attempt to defeat the “bearded socialist”. Many of us look at Karl Rove and say “shame on you” as his rant against O’Donnell on the night she won the primary was not only ill advised, but dishonest as he, at the time, did not reveal that he was consulting her liberal, defeated opponent, Mike Castle. Other pundits, attempting to show themselves to be above the common folks who make up the tea party, followed suit.

In spite of the fact that these poor unwashed masses were expected to fall in line and back their establishment candidate, they were given permission to vote for the Democrat or sit out the entire process by this behavior. According to FoxNews polling 18% of the Republicans did not vote for their party’s candidate. Given the minority in voter registration in the state, this softened support most likely did not make the entire difference… but it certainly didn’t help.

Another take away from the evening is that even good conservative candidates can run afoul of the voters by taking some bad positions. Pat Toomey was running safely ahead of Joe Sestak until he appeared to be siding with the Chinese on a free trade issue. In a perfect world, populated by people of good will who value fair play, this may not be a bad position. However we do not live in that perfect world. People are out of work, manufacturing jobs are gone and we are seeing American companies shipping those manufacturing jobs overseas, and trying to sell their products to people who have either lost their jobs are are fearing impending loss. It may help the bottom line, but it does little for their country. As this is written, it is not clear whether or not this was a fatal error, but is it clear that it cost him a major chunk of votes.

The other outstanding issue is considering why the apparent tidal wave didn’t sweep through the Senate as polling predicted. Some have suggested that the traditional telephone polling methodology that relies on listed land lines misses some segments of our society. Young people and some lower income people who only have cell phones (some even supplied by the government) and are off the grid and not counted. This is a serious flaw in the system and calls for some sort of revision to compensate for this.

Republicans are pretty well pleased with the House and State House results but not so much in the Senate. It may be good to consider the fact we were only electing one third of the members and restoration of freedom looks to be a several year process. We just need to maintaining our patience and perseverance to follow through until the job is done.

The bright side of the Senate changes, even if they did not live up to expectations is that the Republicans have a little more cushion and do not have to depend on the likes of the wicked witches of Maine and Lindsey Graham to keep a filibuster together. The power of some “mavericks” to thwart their party, and the will of the people, has been significantly diminished.

The flip side of the new party ratios is that, while the Republicans have broadened their philosophical range with the addition of some real conservatives, the Democrats have narrowed theirs with hard core leftists retaining their positions in liberal, often urban, districts and the more “moderate” members falling prey to the will of the people. We should see some interesting times in Washington… but only if the Republicans govern like they ran.

I will close with one word of caution to the new Republican majority: it’s not about you. There were some really good candidates who generated enthusiasm and excitement in the voters, but much of this was a rejection of the Democrat shenanigans and you were the only choice. This means that falling in line and becoming complicit in the destruction of our country will not help the country and it will not get you elected next time around.