So, election day has come and gone. The GOP picked up a couple of governorships; a Congressional special election in a traditionally Republican district went to the Dems; and Maine voters decided to limit whom God may join together.
The talking heads on the television and radio, and bloggers young and old will all surely be trying to find meaning in the results.
My €0.02 on the subject – we apparently haven’t learned much, given that all the lessons seem to be ones that have been taught before:
- When times are tough, incumbents (or the incumbent party) lose.
- When the more extreme/hardcore partisans gain the reins of who appears on the ballot, moderate voters defect.
- When “outsiders” pour into a state to campaign for a polarizing issue, longtime local voters tend to become annoyed and resist change.
- Elected officials, as always, seem to be lost in a sea of spin in trying to sell meaning from a handful of election results. However, partisans seem to still be blind to the implications of the rather large unfavorability ratings of legislative bodies. (How long has it been since more than 30% of voters have thought that Congress was doing a good job?)
