05 Nov A disappointed Democrat searches for silver linings

Posted at 20:49h in That's life by

The morning after Democrats suffered humiliating defeats in midterm elections, a Massachusetts friend who is a lifelong, liberal Democrat, licked his wounds in a Facebook post:

I would so like all the talking head experts to point out that this election was all about who voted and who did not. It was not a “wave election.” Numbers matter. Look at three critical states:

  • In North Carolina the Republican Tillis received 1.4M votes, [Democrat] Hagan 1.3M. In 2012 Obama received 2.1M and Romney 2.2.
  • In Colorado, the winning Republican received 922,977, [Democrat] Udall 843,103. Two years ago Obama won with 1.2 M votes to Romney’s 1.1M.
  • And in Iowa the same picture: the winning Republican had 586,856 and [Democrat] Braley lost with 491,669. Two years ago, Obama had 816,429 to Romney’s 727,928.

So this election was all about who voted and who didn’t. A higher percentage of Obama’s voters did not vote. A higher percentage of Republican voters did vote. Result: Republicans control the Congress. Demographics are not destiny if key constituencies do not vote.

While I have little respect for many of the Republican politicians who won yesterday ( I don’t know which is scarier: that they believe what they campaign on or that they don’t) , I am deeply troubled by the millions of decent, considerate, generous Americans who voted for them. There are of course many factors: religion, sincere conservative beliefs, too rapid change, race. But there is also the failure of the Democratic party to offer thoughtful, creative, populist proposals for real change and reform that could appeal to at least some of the voters who did turn out yesterday and voted Republican. [Contrarian’s emphasis]

John Cassidy, writing in the New Yorker, made a parallel point:

The same exit poll that showed fifty-nine per cent of respondents were dissatisfied or angry with the Obama Administration found that sixty-one per cent of respondents were angry or disappointed with Republican leaders in Congress. It found that fifty-three per cent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party and that fifty-six per cent have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party. [And those are polls of the Republican-skewing citizens who actually voted. – PD]

As for policy, the exit poll showed that the economy remains the biggest issue, by far, in voters’ minds. Jobs and wages are what people care about most, and, in both of these areas, they tended to support Democratic positions. One quick example: at the same time as they were electing a Republican senator and a Republican governor, the voters of Arkansas approved, by a two-to-one margin, a raise in the state’s minimum wage.

Yet another lining, though perhaps more green-hued than silver: While Stephen Harper seeks longer prison terms for ever smaller quantities of marijuana in Canada, the disproportionately elderly, Republican crowd that trooped to the polls in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC, voted to legalize marijuana. In Florida, a constitutional amendment to do the same thing legalize medical marijuana failed when it received only 58 percent of the vote. (It needed 60 percent.)

And in welcome bit of good news for the Nova Star Ferry, favourite whipping boy of Halifax political reporters, South Portland, Maine, also voted to legalize pot.

Road trip, anyone?