And, it gets worse for the Democrats. The Gallup poll was of registered voters, not likely voters who skew more Republican, in part because fewer young people vote in midterm elections.
Let’s take a look at how these factors played out in the recent gubernatorial races. In Virginia and New Jersey, the percentage of voters under age 44 dropped 18 and 14 percentage points, respectively, from last November to this November. And what of the all-important independents Obama narrowly won in both states? They voted overwhelmingly for the Republican candidates.
Cantor is also right that the people want change — still. They trusted Democrats to deliver. The Democrats haven’t, not yet at least, and pleas for patience come at a price. If voters’ thirst remains unsated, they will change politicians until politicians change policies.
The party that wins the White House generally loses Congressional seats in the midterm, but this Democratic-controlled government has particular issues. Its agenda has been hamstrung by a perfect storm of politics: the Republicans’ surprisingly effective obstructionist strategy, a Democratic caucus riddled with conservative sympathizers and a president encircled by crises and crippled by caution.
And, the most important pocketbook issue — jobs — hasn’t been the priority that it should be. History may eventually judge these Democrats favorably. Who knows? But real-time anxiety threatens to undermine them.
Jobs may be a lagging indicator of economic recovery, but consecutive summers of “staycations” may be a leading indicator of political realignment.
I sincerely hope President Obama and the Democratic congress wake up and smell the coffee before 2010 becomes a repeat of 1994.
Hopes were so high after President Obama's victory last year. After the Democrats won majorities in both houses. Then this insane fixation on bipartisanship with Republicans who have NO intention of EVER working with Democrats, whose only goal is to take down President Obama the way they took down President Clinton.
Republicans would rather see the nation fail than see President Obama and the Democrats succeed. You can't work with people like Boehner and Cantor. Bipartisanship is a myth. President Obama and the Democratic congress have to reverse the damage caused by the Republican Party over the past eight years or they'll suffer the consequences at the polls in 2010, 2012, and beyond.
Voters didn't elect Democrats because they wanted four more years. They elected Democrats because they demanded change. If President Obama and the Democratic Party doesn't start delivering on their promise of change then the Republicans, as strange as this twisted logic sounds, will defeat them with the same strategy. In a nightmare scenario of back to the future, Chris Christie, a Bush appointed federal prosecutor with serious issues regarding ethics and cronyism, just won the governorship on a message of change right here in the usually very blue state of New Jersey, because Democratic voters and young voters just didn't bother to come out and vote. Shades of 2010 and 2012 if something isn't done, and soon.
Give up on the bipartisan crap and deliver the change we were promised. Start kicking ass and taking names. It took a near depression to finally wake up American voters in 2008. Sitting back and depending on American voters to realize the game the Republicans are running on them has never worked except for the Republicans.