Elitist Writer here ready to gripe about simplistic thinking.

I thought that Democrats were critical thinkers! What's the matter with you? I'm sure that many in here understand that politics are complex areas of study. Politics are cultural. Politics are sociological. Politics are psychological. Politics are all of these things, and more.

To attribute election results to any one cause, no matter how zippy it's articulated, is off-base. No ONE factor causes a result! One can say that some in the Washington media operated with prescribed narratives that worked against our favor. Okay. Or one can say that the White House did a poor job selling its accomplishments to the American people. Yeah, okay. Or the poor economy and high unemployment left many voters feeling vulnerable and untrustworthy of who is in power. Right.

I could go on... and on... but the truth is, what caused the 2010 elections is a mix of all of these things, and many I have not written. Why do you think you can distill one of the most complex societal rituals - a democratic election - into simplistic terms? What's the point of that? Is that how one understands history? Is it written in pat sentences, such as: The 2010 elections swung in the Republicans' favor, because the Democrats voted for health care? I don't know about you, but I think it's much more complicated than that, and with the exception of textbooks in Texas classrooms, that's how history will be written.

So what's the point, other than being self-defeating? It's like watching a bunch of lemmings with one-track minds jump off a cliff.

Be a complicated thinker! You don't have to jump off the cliff - you don't!

~Elitist Writer~

As I watched Dem after Dem get defeated here in Upper Michigan, I already knew there was no one simple answer to explain it. The poor economy was a major factor for sure but there are many others which combined together made this a very bad year for Dems in the Upper Peninsula.

since you use the locution "politics are". I know it is okay to treat the word as either singular or plural, but I think most of us common folk would say "politics is";-)

everyone comes out with a favorite theory. I find it one of the more interesting times on DU because of that. I agree, the causes of defeat and victory are mixed. But people, including those of Du. are rarely eager to abandon preconceived notions.

We are one moody ass country. And we top that off with a political attention deficit disorder, a short term memory problem and very little patience. I think everything else we end up blaming for these things are really just symptoms of all that.