Election Results That Went Under-Reported

The echo chamber that is the American media blathered on and on last night and into the wee hours of this morning about the Republican victory in taking control of the House of Representatives, about how the Tea Party boosted the right-wing's successes, and how President Obama's agenda is now in jeopardy. As in any major news story, reporters and editors dropdep important facts for lack of time and space. This election was no exception.

First off, the great conservative tidal wave didn't even dampen California. The state tends to lead America both culturally and politically, and if this continues to be the case, the rightist resurgence has no legs. Democrat Jerry Brown (Governor Moonbeam of the 1970s) is Governor-Elect and will have San Franciscan Democrat Gavin Newsom as his lieutenant governor. Democrat John Chiang won re-election as comptroller and will work with re-elected Democrat Bill Lockyer. Democrat David Jones is going to be the new insurance commissioner (a job held by the GOP until yesterday). Democratic Assemblyman Tom Torlakson will be the state's next superintendent of public instruction. And Barbara Boxer kept her Senate seat despite Republican Carly Fiorina spending millions of her own money to buy the seat. The state's congressional delegation remains virtually unchanged.

Second, running against Hispanics is not a guaranteed winner. The old Southern Strategy of the Republican Party is to write off the black vote in the south in order to secure the racist, redneck vote, which is bigger. Out west, the GOP tried to adapt this idea to local demographics. Run against Spanish-speaking brown people and collect the votes of the English-speaking white folks. Hispanics proved to be the difference in both the Nevada (where they broke for Harry Reid by more than 2:1, and where they make up 25% of the population) and California senate races. Immigration is a genuine concern, but when it is played in a ham-fisted fashion as a sop to racists, the move is counter-productive.

Third, as this journal pointed out earlier, state legislature and gubernatorial races were more important in 2010 than usual. The reason is redistricting based on the census. Most states have their legislatures draw up congressional boundaries and pass legislation putting them into effect. The GOP took control in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, where the two chambers had been split. In Alabama, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin, they flipped both chambers. They also gained control of the Iowa House and Minnesota Senate. New York's Senate may yet fall to them. As a result, one can expect more GOP-friendly congressional districts in these states.

Fourth, the Tea Corporate Front Organization is a problem for the Republicans. An ideologically driven faction with little legislative experience is not an issue if it is numerically few in number. The Tea Front backed 129 House GOP candidates according to MSNBC, and 113 of them won. That's not quite half of the entire GOP caucus. The presumptive Speaker of the House John Boehner may not be so much a leader of the party as a prominent follower. In the Senate, South Carolina's Jim DeMint put down a marker in today's Wall Street Journal with this in an op-ed, an open letter to the new Tea Corporate Front Organization's Senators, "The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster. Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy." And he's probably the guy to help them stay pure, in exchange for their support.

Finally, the Democrats had many Blue Dogs purged by the voters. The Huffington Post says that 23 of the 46 right-of-center Democrats lost their seats. This means the Democratic Party in the House is going to be farther to the left in the next congress. There are fewer people in the middle now thanks to the Tea Front and the Blue Dog purge. That probably means lots of gridlock ahead.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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