Relax, The World Didn't End on Tuesday
Once again, the American experiment in democracy produced a fair and free election, this time the midterm elections for the House and part of the Senate. But to hear the replies of some people, the results of Tuesday night destroyed our American democracy. No, I'm not exaggerating. But I'll get to that...
I have to say I didn't watch the election results on Tuesday night with giddy anticipation, having the rooting interest in a side. Oh sure, I am still a registered Republican (In Name Only), but given the disappointment I have in my party, I wasn't about to celebrate the people who are going in to take control of the House of Representatives. As for the Senate, with the likes of Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle running, control of that chamber just wasn't happening. So I had more of the casual outside observer's interest. Yes, I did vote, even though I don't plan on running for office someday (and on that note, Jon Runyan with his total lack of voting record STILL WON), so I guess I cared about the races I took part in. And the House race didn't matter, because Brady ran unopposed. I am happy about Tom Corbett winning the PA governorship, but who knows if he will be able to change Harrisburg like he promised. As for New York, Cuomo won as expected, and as expected everyone yelled and screamed about how bad Albany is... and then (with few exceptions) re-elected their incumbent senators and assemblymen.
But back to the national races. The general reaction amongst most of my Democrat friends was disappointment, mostly at their party for not employing a better election strategy (and I would agree that they didn't). The Republicans weren't exactly shouting "in your faces" and getting out their victory dances, but they were happy. But there were some who don't know any better who expressed anger at the results and once again (as so often happens after elections) considered the American voting electorate to possess fewer IQ points than Forrest Gump. Which shows that for all the talk of anger on the Right that we heard right up until Tuesday, all the anger now belongs to the Left.
You can read it in the words of hysterical liberals like Paul Krugman, who even before the election proclaimed that a GOP takeover of the House would essentially spell the end of America. His exact words were, "Future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness." Of course, these are the same people who tried to tell us that history had already judged the Iraq War as a failure before the surge succeeded, so I'm not surprised that Krugman is now trying to forecast what historians will say about something that HASN'T EVEN HAPPENED YET. Incidentally, the last 2 years HAVEN'T been "political chaos and economic weakness"? But I'm sure Krugman will tell you that's because we didn't rack up trillions more in debt.
But on Election Night, it got even worse. Katrina Van den Heuvel of the Nation went on the live edition of the Colbert Report and declared that the Republican House victory was a dagger at the heart of democracy. Alright, I really feel the need to ask this question of the Left: Why is it that when democracy is used but benefits Republicans, it's a threat to democracy? When a Republican senator places a hold on a bill (which senators have always been able to do), it's the end of democracy. When the Republican minority in the Senate filibusters (which it's always been able to do), it's subversion of democracy. Would the Left now scream for the nuclear option in the Senate so that their 53 votes can prevail, even knowing that a flip of 4 seats in 2012 would give the GOP the power to use that option to "destroy democracy"? Once again, hypocrisy on full display.
Really, it's bitterness on full display... and nothing says "bitter" the day after an election quite like repeating the same talking points that didn't work in the voting booths the day before, but I got to see that from a few people as well. And then there was all of the hysterical and ridiculous predictions of all the ways the GOP will roll back everyone's rights now that they have control of the House.
Okay, Democrats. Time for me to rain a little sanity on your pity parade. First of all, let me state the obvious: the Republicans have the House but YOU STILL HAVE THE SENATE. AND THE WHITE HOUSE. Therefore, if the GOP actually had the cojones to pass bills repealing Obamacare, ending corporate taxes, or rolling back women's or gay rights, they would not have a prayer of passing the Senate, and would certainly get vetoed by President Obama. So your hysteria is ill-founded, and also goes into why I wasn't exactly feeling like I was witness to history on Tuesday night.
Also, there is the Tea Party. As much as many on the Left believe that the Republican Party and their evil corporate backers are running the Tea Party, that's just incorrect. Ask any Tea Party member, and they will continue to tell you that they have to battle "establishment types" like John Cornyn (who before the Tea Party came along was probably one of the most right-wing senators in America) and even future Speaker of the House John Boehner. The Tea Party people who were elected to the House have thought about forming their own caucus, similar to the Blue Dog caucus of moderate Democrats (and more on them shortly). If this were to happen, they would have the power to affect GOP policy, just like the Blue Dogs could stop Nancy Pelosi. One would think that the threat of the Tea Party on one side torpedoing Republican legislation that isn't far enough to the Right, along with the threat of the Democratic Senate and White House torpedoing legislation that is too far to the Right may keep the Republicans from doing very much at all that would "destroy America".
But back to the Blue Dogs for a moment. My concern going into this election cycle was that Nancy Pelosi would send liberal primary challengers against them to punish them for taking the public option out of health care and other moderate "sins". As it turned out, the real threat was the Republicans, as half of the Blue Dog caucus got wiped out in the election. The real losers here are those like me who want some sort of moderating force in government, especially the House, which has proven to swing wildly from far Left to far Right with few opportunities for a pragmatic majority. And now, despite the dispatching of polarizing Democrat Alan ("The Republicans Want You to Die Quickly") Grayson, there are many more types on the Republican side to take his place, and in 2012, what are the odds that the freshmen Republicans will be challenged by moderate Democrats? Not very high, if you ask me. So common sense won a battle but is losing the war, it seems.
Other big losers on Tuesday, besides obviously the House Democrats (especially the moderates): opinion media and small-time pollsters. Remember last week when I said that NY 24 and NY 25 were solid Democrat seats and not "toss-ups", as some believed? That's because I was reading the poll numbers, which had Michael Arcuri (24) and Dan Maffei (25) up by double-digits. Those poll numbers were WRONG. Arcuri lost his seat and Maffei currently trails Ann Marie Buerkle in a race that will come down to the absentee ballots.
While the pollsters are eating crow, many are calling for MSNBC to shut their collective pie-holes. Keith Olbermann was suspended for his contributions to 3 Democrats whom he then had on his show, but that is perhaps not as bad as the MSNBC Election Night coverage that featured all of their talk show hosts trashing Republicans all night. Rachel Maddow, of course, played the "Fox is worse" card in defending Olbermann and her network's coverage, but it's not about who can stoop lower or who can be more unabashedly biased and vitriolic. Unfortunately, I honestly think both Fox and MSNBC are past the point of rescue. They both know what works for them, and they'll pursue it as far as they can. Which is why I watched CNN on Election Night. I also watched Jon Stewart, and I'm almost willing to apologize for what I said about him last week, but it's still a fact that his audience is squarely in the Democrat camp, so as much as he wants to criticize MSNBC for their coverage Tuesday night, you have to wonder how many of his viewers were also playing the "Fox is worse" card.
Ultimately, the message to take from Tuesday is this... Obama is still president, the Democrats still have the Senate. The world did not come to an end. Unfortunately, I don't think we can say there will be political peace in our time.
I have to say I didn't watch the election results on Tuesday night with giddy anticipation, having the rooting interest in a side. Oh sure, I am still a registered Republican (In Name Only), but given the disappointment I have in my party, I wasn't about to celebrate the people who are going in to take control of the House of Representatives. As for the Senate, with the likes of Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle running, control of that chamber just wasn't happening. So I had more of the casual outside observer's interest. Yes, I did vote, even though I don't plan on running for office someday (and on that note, Jon Runyan with his total lack of voting record STILL WON), so I guess I cared about the races I took part in. And the House race didn't matter, because Brady ran unopposed. I am happy about Tom Corbett winning the PA governorship, but who knows if he will be able to change Harrisburg like he promised. As for New York, Cuomo won as expected, and as expected everyone yelled and screamed about how bad Albany is... and then (with few exceptions) re-elected their incumbent senators and assemblymen.
But back to the national races. The general reaction amongst most of my Democrat friends was disappointment, mostly at their party for not employing a better election strategy (and I would agree that they didn't). The Republicans weren't exactly shouting "in your faces" and getting out their victory dances, but they were happy. But there were some who don't know any better who expressed anger at the results and once again (as so often happens after elections) considered the American voting electorate to possess fewer IQ points than Forrest Gump. Which shows that for all the talk of anger on the Right that we heard right up until Tuesday, all the anger now belongs to the Left.
You can read it in the words of hysterical liberals like Paul Krugman, who even before the election proclaimed that a GOP takeover of the House would essentially spell the end of America. His exact words were, "Future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness." Of course, these are the same people who tried to tell us that history had already judged the Iraq War as a failure before the surge succeeded, so I'm not surprised that Krugman is now trying to forecast what historians will say about something that HASN'T EVEN HAPPENED YET. Incidentally, the last 2 years HAVEN'T been "political chaos and economic weakness"? But I'm sure Krugman will tell you that's because we didn't rack up trillions more in debt.
But on Election Night, it got even worse. Katrina Van den Heuvel of the Nation went on the live edition of the Colbert Report and declared that the Republican House victory was a dagger at the heart of democracy. Alright, I really feel the need to ask this question of the Left: Why is it that when democracy is used but benefits Republicans, it's a threat to democracy? When a Republican senator places a hold on a bill (which senators have always been able to do), it's the end of democracy. When the Republican minority in the Senate filibusters (which it's always been able to do), it's subversion of democracy. Would the Left now scream for the nuclear option in the Senate so that their 53 votes can prevail, even knowing that a flip of 4 seats in 2012 would give the GOP the power to use that option to "destroy democracy"? Once again, hypocrisy on full display.
Really, it's bitterness on full display... and nothing says "bitter" the day after an election quite like repeating the same talking points that didn't work in the voting booths the day before, but I got to see that from a few people as well. And then there was all of the hysterical and ridiculous predictions of all the ways the GOP will roll back everyone's rights now that they have control of the House.
Okay, Democrats. Time for me to rain a little sanity on your pity parade. First of all, let me state the obvious: the Republicans have the House but YOU STILL HAVE THE SENATE. AND THE WHITE HOUSE. Therefore, if the GOP actually had the cojones to pass bills repealing Obamacare, ending corporate taxes, or rolling back women's or gay rights, they would not have a prayer of passing the Senate, and would certainly get vetoed by President Obama. So your hysteria is ill-founded, and also goes into why I wasn't exactly feeling like I was witness to history on Tuesday night.
Also, there is the Tea Party. As much as many on the Left believe that the Republican Party and their evil corporate backers are running the Tea Party, that's just incorrect. Ask any Tea Party member, and they will continue to tell you that they have to battle "establishment types" like John Cornyn (who before the Tea Party came along was probably one of the most right-wing senators in America) and even future Speaker of the House John Boehner. The Tea Party people who were elected to the House have thought about forming their own caucus, similar to the Blue Dog caucus of moderate Democrats (and more on them shortly). If this were to happen, they would have the power to affect GOP policy, just like the Blue Dogs could stop Nancy Pelosi. One would think that the threat of the Tea Party on one side torpedoing Republican legislation that isn't far enough to the Right, along with the threat of the Democratic Senate and White House torpedoing legislation that is too far to the Right may keep the Republicans from doing very much at all that would "destroy America".
But back to the Blue Dogs for a moment. My concern going into this election cycle was that Nancy Pelosi would send liberal primary challengers against them to punish them for taking the public option out of health care and other moderate "sins". As it turned out, the real threat was the Republicans, as half of the Blue Dog caucus got wiped out in the election. The real losers here are those like me who want some sort of moderating force in government, especially the House, which has proven to swing wildly from far Left to far Right with few opportunities for a pragmatic majority. And now, despite the dispatching of polarizing Democrat Alan ("The Republicans Want You to Die Quickly") Grayson, there are many more types on the Republican side to take his place, and in 2012, what are the odds that the freshmen Republicans will be challenged by moderate Democrats? Not very high, if you ask me. So common sense won a battle but is losing the war, it seems.
Other big losers on Tuesday, besides obviously the House Democrats (especially the moderates): opinion media and small-time pollsters. Remember last week when I said that NY 24 and NY 25 were solid Democrat seats and not "toss-ups", as some believed? That's because I was reading the poll numbers, which had Michael Arcuri (24) and Dan Maffei (25) up by double-digits. Those poll numbers were WRONG. Arcuri lost his seat and Maffei currently trails Ann Marie Buerkle in a race that will come down to the absentee ballots.
While the pollsters are eating crow, many are calling for MSNBC to shut their collective pie-holes. Keith Olbermann was suspended for his contributions to 3 Democrats whom he then had on his show, but that is perhaps not as bad as the MSNBC Election Night coverage that featured all of their talk show hosts trashing Republicans all night. Rachel Maddow, of course, played the "Fox is worse" card in defending Olbermann and her network's coverage, but it's not about who can stoop lower or who can be more unabashedly biased and vitriolic. Unfortunately, I honestly think both Fox and MSNBC are past the point of rescue. They both know what works for them, and they'll pursue it as far as they can. Which is why I watched CNN on Election Night. I also watched Jon Stewart, and I'm almost willing to apologize for what I said about him last week, but it's still a fact that his audience is squarely in the Democrat camp, so as much as he wants to criticize MSNBC for their coverage Tuesday night, you have to wonder how many of his viewers were also playing the "Fox is worse" card.
Ultimately, the message to take from Tuesday is this... Obama is still president, the Democrats still have the Senate. The world did not come to an end. Unfortunately, I don't think we can say there will be political peace in our time.
posted by Dave | 5:00 PM
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