Why the GOP Won in 1994 and Lost in 2006

[erpowers]

There is at least slight questioning as to why the GOP won in 1994 and lost in 2006, or conversely how the Democrats lost in 1994 and won in 2006. There is also a question as to whether the Democrats can maintain the wins from 2006. I contend the reason the Democrats lost in 1994 was that they had a poor GOTV program. I also contend the GOP stayed in control so long, in part, due to 9/11. If it had not been for 9/11 the Republicans would have lost control of the House in 2002 and kept and increased their control of the Senate in 2002. It seems that fear kept people voting for the Republican Party until 2006. I contend the Democrats can keep the majority they gained as long as they keep getting people to go the polls and keep reminding people of how poor of a job Republicans did when they were in control. So what do others think?

[nichomachus]

1. There were two big reasons the GOP won in 1994.

1. Newt G. realized that CSPAN was a valuable asset. Late in the day in Congress, members can get up and ramble on ad nauseam -- there's a name for the session but I can't remember what it was, Special Comments or something like that. He realized that a lot of old geezers and other peopele just sit and stare at the TV at that time. These are also the people who vote in large numbers. So, he designed a plan to have Republicans get up at this time and just continually bash Democrats, liberals, and government in general. A year or two of this really catapulted the propaganda. The Dems didn't realize he was doing it, so they lost these voters by default.

2. Newt used focus groups to find out words that rang bells with people -- both positively and negatively. He instructed his troops to use these words. Positive words were used for Republicans -- some are:

# building
# candid(ly)
# care(ing)
# challenge
# change
# children
# choice/choose
# citizen
# commitment
# common sense
# compete
# confident

And the negative words were used when discussing liberals, Democrats, and government. Some of these were

# collapse(ing)
# consequences
# corrupt
# corruption
# criminal rights
# crisis
# cynicism
# decay
# deeper
# destroy
# destructive
# devour
# disgrace
# endanger
# excuses
# failure (fail)
# greed
# hypocrisy

He even put these out later in a memo to all Republicans

Language: A key mechanism of control

[Divine Discontent]

3. ha, it's good to work the brain, it felt like a writing test! I used every word in order. :)

The building excitement surrounding the campaign of Barack Obama shows that he is not only showing a caring side to people's immediate problems, but also a commitment to the challenges America is facing.

Obama's supporters speak of the great change he will bring to them, and a respect in looking forward to help the children have a choice when they reach adulthood and not be bogged down as citizens with a stripped down government, and paying more money towards debt owed to foreign countries than on social services. This common sense approach regarding the issues is gaining him support around the country. He will compete with confidence in all 50 states, and hopes for a landslide.

The same cannot be said about the collapse of the GOP, and the consequences brought about by a corrupt Bush Administration that seemed more concerned with criminal rights (Bush's pardoning of Scooter Libby's treason) than on the crisis of millions of manufacturing jobs being taken to Mexico or China. The cynical and lowly response by Bush, about a lady working 3 jobs as being, "uniquely American" shows his ignorance to the decay of the middle class and a deeper attempt by corporations to destroy the pay structure in America for larger profit margins.

This destructive devouring of our way of life is backed disgracefully by Senator John McCain. Bringing John McCain into the White House to continue Bush's policies would not only endanger our economy into falling towards total collapse, but would give McCain all the excuses he needs to launch a full-blown military assault upon Iran. Failure would not be acceptable to him in this invasion either, and we'll be fighting multiple wars with thousands more US citizens dying in our military because of McCain's preemptive and unnecessary actions. The GOP's greed and hypocrisy on the issues that effect every American should be more than enough to send a whole new mindset into the White House - and that isn't John McSame!

Barack Obama '08

[Zynx]

2. Democrats also lost independent voters in 1994. In fact, they lost them by a similar margin

that they won them by in 2006.