Jay Cost warns of another populist backlash in the 2010 midterm elections:
Democrats will be hit much, much harder than Republicans. Even so, it would be a huge mistake to interpret the coming rebuke through a strictly ideological or partisan lens. Yet predictably, that’s what many will do. Republicans will see this as a historic rejection of Barack Obama’s liberalism, just as they saw the 1994 revolution as a censure of Bill Clinton, and just as Democrats saw 2006 and 2008 as admonishments of George W. Bush’s foreign policy. These interpretations are only half right. When the people are angry at the way the government is being managed, and they are casting about for change, their only option is the minority party. The partisans of the minority are quick to interpret this as their holy invitation to the promised land, but that’s not what it really is about. They were only given the promotion because the people had no other choice.
The problem that faces us is that you can’t stop the trend of increasing money and power flowing to Washington by electing people to office who want money or power, the overwhelmingly prevalent reasons for seeking political office.
I like Bartlett’s solution. A bigger House, and go back to state legislatures appointing our Senators.
I wonder if the amount of progressives who disapprove of Obama’s performance is more than the amount of independents who lean towards the right with regards to fiscal matters.
It’s really sad that Obama and Democrats will be thrown out of power, bringing more power to the reckless and incompetent Republicans, when they probably would have done the EXACT SAME THING under the circumstances – bailouts and stimulus packages.
This country won’t advance too much if it keeps electing corporate-friendly Republicans and Democrats. Competent fiscal conservatives will only neglect the working and middle class. Undoing entitlement programs isn’t the answer. Things like privatizing Social Security isn’t the answer. Nader, Kucinich and Sanders have it about right – we’ll be better off as a country when we start to heed these opinions.