I'm not down with all the analysis here, but check the last few paragraphs discussing President Obama's new populist tone. There might be something to that. At Los Angeles Times, "Election hints at larger populist backlash against deeply divided government."
And at New York Times, "Recall Election Claims Arizona Anti-Immigration Champion."
What else can you expect when ideology replaces leadership and responsiveness?
ReplyDeleteThe GOP has misinterpreted the backlash against Reid/Pelosi as a new mandate to go to the opposite extreme. In nature, this is the process of sudden extinction versus evolution.
The idea that "choosing sides" is the only way to run this country ignores the reality that most people are uncomfortable with the extreme right/left rhetoric... and the extreme results of actions taken on the basis of such rhetoric. Whether the process is appointing dozens of "czars" and passing incomprehensible legislation or "daisy cutter" approaches to governing, the average Joe is going to ask: "Doesn't anyone have a clue how to get things done without a scorched earth policy?
We need true leadership which is rarely found among the professional politician corp. That doesn't mean perfection; that means understanding that those governing derive their just powers from the governed... all those who are governed, not just a political clique or party. It is not the unions versus others or the 99% versus the 1%. It is government that respects the individual and doesn't attempt to fragment those governed in order to increase its own powers.
People are not as blind or stupid as the political parties seem to think.