A Congressional majority is a terrible thing to waste, as Rahm Emanuel might say, and yesterday the public took that lesson to heart. Americans erased a Democratic House majority and a huge swath of the “moderates” who Mr. Emanuel had personally recruited to build their majorities in 2006 and 2008 before he became White House chief of staff. They were ousted from power after a mere two terms for having pursued an agenda they didn’t advertise and that voters didn’t want.
Yes, the economy was the dominant issue and the root of much voter worry and frustration with Washington. But make no mistake, this was also an ideological repudiation of the Democratic agenda of the last two years. Independents turned with a vengeance on the same Democrats they had vaulted into the majority in the waning George W. Bush years, rejecting the economy-killing trio of $812 billion in stimulus spending, cap and tax and ObamaCare.
The President refused to recognize this at the press conference today and blamed the economy for not responding faster. Polling is showing that health care and spending are big reasons for the results. They do not get it that we are not being heard even when we vote.
Let’s see what the new bunch of pols achieve in their two years. Hard to believe that the Know-Nothings-Do Nothings will accomplish anything other than the redistribution of income from the working poor to the wealthy, and the maintenance of two wars without a tax increase.