There's no point trying to read a message into the midterm results. There's no message there.

[TheWraith]

I just read a post claiming that the midterm results were the voters repudiating compromise on the part of the Obama administration. Or how about the idea that somehow losing the majority was really helpful to the Dems because a bunch of Blue Dogs lost their seats. Or the belief that people expect Republicans to be more responsible when they actually have power.

I can't count the number of theories that have been posted here over the last 36 hours about what the message from the voters is. All of them have missed the mark. The truth is this: There is no "message" in the midterm results. They have no logical meaning, because they're driven by people who were acting irrationally.

The "meaning" in the midterms is this: the Republicans did everything they could to stop the recovery of this country, and as a result the average low-information voter used their ballot for a temper tantrum over the fact that everything isn't fixed fast enough, and that they can't go right back to the way things were a few years ago and be blissfully ignorant of there being problems in the world. So therefore, they elect the same people who destroyed their savings, lost them their jobs, and tanked the economy. There is no rational motivation for that; trying to reason one out is like trying to decide what motivation the lemmings have to jump off a cliff.

[HereSince1628]

1. I don't agree, but I admire your enthusiasm and commitment. n/t

[TheWraith]

5. Then what logical reason is there to elect a Republican House?

I'm all ears. What will a Republican House do to help save America?

[HereSince1628]

10. Allow me to address the first question and the non sequiter later

The lesson is very very simple.

People vote for candidates who state positions with which they resonate.

What's got most American's vibrating is FEAR. Mostly economic fears.
What do most American's know about economics? Their families' experiences.

In the common person's reality it works like this...
Taxes are bills. If I could reduce bills I'd have more money to spend.= resonate with tax cuts

Debt creates bills, in these times of job insecurity, debt is bad= deficit spending is bad (even if in reality deficit spending may be stimulatory and create demand that leads to jobs)

The Mandate in Health Care Reform creates a new bill. One forced on me by the Democrats= be against HCR (even if in a few years it could save yours or a family members life).

Democrats thought they achieved the greatest number of good things in decades, but the things that they did do, were not percieved by everyday folks as increasing personal economic security.

The bottom line is democrats didn't succeed at delivering a message that resonated with the desires of the majority of voters. You can parse that and blame mutliple agents/agencies but the lesson is obvious.

Regarding the second question...I don't expect the Republicans to do ANYTHING to save Americans.

I fear that some of them may actually want to intentionally cause the collapse of the Union. The attempt to apply kitchenomics and such lunacy to national spending caps and the reduction of national debt could precipitate the nation's failure and dissolution. The filibuster in the senate gives at least 3 of the wackiest, lose cannon, tea-partiers the capacity to cause that crisis.

[TheWraith]

11. That explains messaging. It doesn't speak to rationality.

Someone who's making a decision based on evidence would look at the parties and recognize that there is a clear divide between the people who are fixing things and the ones who are making it worse. But people were not voting based on rational evidence.

[HereSince1628]

12. Rationality is not a requisite for voting in the US. We do not have poll tests

because we found them to be discriminatory.

However, as an observer, _I_ can rationally see that the voters were led by what is a more or less irrational fear of government assistance to the ailing economy.

They know how to run a household, they do not understand how Keynsian economics can be applied to resist depressive spirals in the nation's economy.

[treestar]

2. Yes and that midterms always have lower turnout anyway

Some people just don't pay attention to politics. They deserve what happens.

[cdsilv]

3. the motivation the lemmings have to jump off a cliff. is that...

they were being chased by the camera crew in a helicopter that drove them off the cliff...

[uponit7771]

4. I disagree a lil, Iowa has a relatively perfect economy and good job growth dems STILL lost bad...

...in that state because of lack of ground game. There was little money spent there relative to the other states where big money was spent.

[Fresh_Start]

6. there are lots of messages in there, not only one

I don't think you can blame it on people acting irrationally.
They were only irrational if they had grasp of the facts and decided to vote against reality.
But the was very little reality involved in this election and a whole lot of lies and misrepresentations.

You could argue that the people were too lazy to get the facts, I wouldn't argue that point. But the truth is that the facts weren't given to them either which is a huge mistake in communication by the administration.

[frazzled]

7. Or, as Josh Marshall put it this morning

It Proves I'm Right

I'm terribly surprised that everyone everywhere on the political spectrum (here and there) is using Tuesday's results as confirmation of the assumptions they've held all along.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/11/it_pr...

[Scurrilous]

8. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Bitwit1234]

9. The only message I see is

America is stupider than I thought and this proves that fox and CNN are the only two networks watched.