The American electorate have been angry with the political directorate in Congress and the White House. Overwhelmingly, voters took their anger out on the President of the United States who is the symbol of governmental leadership in the United States. The Grand Old Party made gains in the House and picked up a solid majority in the Senate.
The Democrats tried to localize a national election but when you run for the Senate or the House, one cannot escape burning issues of a national nature that are on the minds of discontented voters. Democrats particularly in the South ran from Obama and futilely made the case that they were of a different ideological persuasion from the black President. The Republican strategy was to paint Democrats with the brush of the President. Some Democrats like Allison Grimes in Kentucky refused to state whether she voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. She differentiated herself from the President by bellowing that she was a Clinton Democrat. She easily lost to Mitch McConnell who will become majority leader in the Senate.
Ray Hugan in North Carolina at the eleventh hour used black media outlets with an Obama appeal to support her. Mark Udall, the incumbent Senator in Colorado ran a one dimensional campaign criticizing his opponent for being an advocate for personhood. His campaign was unappealing to women, the very said constituency that he sought to exploit. The Republicans played on the fears of the electorate. Obama was blamed for Ebola, ISIS and the lunar eclipse.
There was a track record of accomplishments that could have been used by the Democratic Party. The American economy that was wrecked by Wall Street speculators in 2008 has essentially recovered. The DOW that was down 6,000 is now over 17,000. The unemployment rate is 5.9 percent and since President Obama took office over 10 million jobs have been created. Over the last few months, job creation has been hovering at 200,000.
America is on the cusp of energy independence. Gas prices have fallen below $3.00. The manufacturing sector is no longer losing jobs and because of cheap energy, foreign investors are eager to invest in America.
Democrats clearly are not knowledgeable on the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans prior to the elections had become fixated on “Obamacare” but muted their criticism in the election. Timid Democrats were afraid to make the case how many of the uninsured have now acquired health insurance, the subsidies that benefited working families, the elimination of pre-existing conditions and the insulation of the insured from health insurance bankruptcy. The scandal in health care in America is the refusal of Republican governors to apply for the expansion of Medicaid even though such an act would have provided health coverage for the working poor in those in red states.
The anger of the American people has to do with the precarious living standards of the middle class. Wages have been essentially stagnant since the 1970s and the lion share of the profits since the 2008 recession has gone to the top one percent. Not much is trickling down. But the American people lack a social democratic tradition as is the case in Europe. The electorate presumes Washington is broken but Washington lobbyists ensure that the interests of their rich clients are insulated from the cacophony.
What should we expect from a Republican Party with a majority in both Houses for the next two years? There will be those who will use their chairmanship of committees to launch witch-hunts like Benghazi. Ted Cruz, the Senator from Texas, has already sounded his propensity for investigations ad infinitum. Much of the energy for the next two years will be centered around the presidential race of 2016. Those in the Senate like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky will want to send a message to voters that they are rich with ideas and can pass legislation that is beneficial to the American people. The new majority leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has said definitively that under his watch there will be no shut down of the government and no failure to meet the debt obligations of the United States government.
The election of 2010 and 2014 brought joy to the Republican Party. The election of 2008 and 2012 brought sorrow. But there are two contrasting electorates. The off-year presidential electorate constitutes a smaller slice of the voting public, older whites, conservative and terrified of America, is changing demographics. The presidential electorate is a larger percentage of voters, more diverse, younger and represents the America of tomorrow.
The Republican victory of 2014 will convince the old guard that there is no need to attract non-white voters, stay in the bunker, make subterranean appeals to race and keep the pistol cocked and the powder dry. Such is not a winning strategy vis-a-vis presidential elections. The tricks of the trade can extend the life cycle. The Supreme Court of John Roberts gutting of the Voting Rights Act, voter suppression and gerrymandering of House seats merely postpones the inevitability of the new diverse America.
Sizeable segments of the Republican Party are denying climate change and in the same vein, they are denying the profound democratic changes that are well underway in the new America.
