Another Person’s “Two Cents” on Last Night’s Results

The following is from former Raising Kaine “front pager” Dan Fleischmann, now living in Nevada – home of Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. Dan’s now too important to post stuff himself (just kidding), so I’ve posted it for him. 🙂 Enjoy.

Just wanted to give you my two cents on last night.

First off, nobody voted but the base.  The “voice of the American people” wasn’t that Barack Obama and his policies are bad and he should go back to Kenya with the rest of the Muslim terrorists.  Rather the “voice” said, “we don’t care about this stupid election and all your Hatfield-McCoy like battles, so we are staying home and you can battle amongst yourself!” Floridians certainly didn’t have their say. The 2.6 million people that voted for Marco Rubio and 2.5 million that voted for Rick Scott were dwarfed by the 4 million who voted for John McCain in 2008 in Florida. In Virginia, there were 90,000 fewer voters in Tom Perriello’s race than in 2008.  In Nevada, Sharron Angle sure had the support of the Republicans to knock off Harry Reid; well maybe not, since she had 90,000 fewer voters than McCain had in 2008.  Basically she had the support all of the people living in small ranch houses 200 miles from anywhere.

I could go on. The point is the Republicans’ victory was created simply by spending enough money bashing their opponents to convince enough Independents and Democrats to stay home.  The so-called “wave” basically amounted to Glenn Beck’s audience and other white men fed up with Obamacare messing with my taxes and my guns dang-nab-it!

The message isn’t that too many Americans are being duped by Fox News.  It is that too many Americans think politics is a joke, and not worthy of their attention or their time to choose between either party.

It clearly shows that Democrats, who have done everything they can to address both temporary and structural problems through legislative action, have done nothing to express that to the American people. Democrats try to cut taxes and they lose.  Democrats try to be bipartisan and they lose. Democrats try to run away from the President, and they lose. A Democrat running for Governor in Rhode Island found that out.

However, Democrats try to be bold, and show how they are different, try to lead and give people hope, they win. Even if they have a “liberal” message, they win. If they are confident and stand behind their principles, they win.

So, we will have to endure two years of the Republicans making asses out of themselves in the House, while the Senate is forced to compensate with mild legislation that doesn’t accomplish much. The economy will still probably improve, in spite of the Republicans’ victory, and not because of it. People will realize that Obama isn’t so bad, and that the Republicans are full of absolute crap.  John Boehner will play golf with millionaires and sleep in his tanning bed, eventually contracting enough melanoma to bring an army of new health professionals just to treat it.  

Meanwhile, the Democrats will regroup, knowing that most of the “blue dogs” – i.e. Republican lites – are sitting at home pondering which big corporation to lobby for in the future. All I can say is that it will be entertaining to watch, and at least the Democrats kept the Senate.