Some random observations about this election.
If one wants to really know what is motivating the Tea Party movement it would be the single word “arrogance”.
John Kerry declares “we’ve lost our minds…truth and science and facts don’t weigh in..” Bill Mayher says we need Democrats to “drag the rest of the hillbillies into the next century…” Obama claimed that many voters “cling to their guns and religion out of fear”. This is the condescension and arrogance that has propelled the Tea Party movement. Every time they hurl another insult at the common voter the Tea Party grows stronger.
When these same people voted for Obama they had nothing but praise for them. Now they are just mindless bots under the control of Glenn Beck and Rush. The Ruling Class has forgotten who the customer is; when you lose a sale you do not blame the customer unless you want to lose them forever.
The Republicans are not immune from this attitude. The Tea Party movement has been as much a fight against Republican arrogance. Lisa Murkowski and Charlie Crisp declared the same arrogance against their Tea Party challengers. Their vain effort cling to power will be a humiliating second defeat for both of them.
Voters will tolerate mistakes and they will tolerate some moral indiscretions. Kennedy was guilty of both, as was Bill Clinton. They will not, however, tolerate lies and arrogance. Bush the elder promised “read my lips, no new taxes” and then broke his most memorable pledge and lost re-election even after a 90% approval rating immediately after the first Gulf War. This Congress and Administration have broken many such pledges in a very short time. Promises of “the most open administration ever”, and posting bills on CNN for five days so everyone could read them were a few of many broken promises. After a promise to eliminate earmarks, we have passed over a thousand and all but a handful were for Democrats.
Much of the campaign rhetoric was irrelevant and insulting. I can’t believe this stuff works. Marco Rubio ran a campaign with depth and discussed his governing philosophy rather than talk about his opponents’ college pranks. I hope he wins very big and becomes a model for future campaigns.
Half of all union workers now work for the government. Government employee unions, not the Chamber of Commerce, was the largest contributor in this election and nearly all of it went to a single party. This is a very disturbing trend. It highlights the hypocrisy of the administration when it insulted the Supreme Court to its face in a public forum (his first State of the Union) over the Citizens United Case, and decried the Chamber for its political activity.
I confess that I first liked Sarah Palin as a fresh new face from outside the arrogant DC elite, and was disappointed during her campaign when she appeared lacking real intellectual depth especially in her embarrassingly shallow interview with Catie Couric. But compared to many incredibly arrogant and ignorant ( a devastating combination) statements from Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, Sarah Palin looks like a Rhodes Scholar.
But a Palin and others decried for their “lack of intelligence” would have voted against the radical legislation that is restraining this economy. Perhaps intelligence alone is insufficient to govern well. Still, just because the intelligent may have caused a problems does not mean that the ignorant can solve it. It takes intelligence to simplify complex issues and communicate them well. Rubio, Daniels, and Chris Christie has this ability; Palin, McConnell and others do not.
The Fed is doing “whatever it takes” to bring this economy back from the brink, but monetary policy can only do so much. For every action taken by the Feds to strengthen this economy, the government’s insane litany of radical legislation and regulation has counteracted. In order to have a baby both partners must cease using birth control.
This election is more about the rejection of the Democrat’s governing than any approval of the Republicans. The Democrats mistook rejection of the opposition for a mandate to do whatever it wants. The Republicans would be wise to learn from their mistake.
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