It’s been a week since the sobering mid-term elections of 2010—plenty of time for reflection. Numbed by months of mindlessly offensive attack ads, my reaction was more incredulity than outrage. Why had so many voters lost faith in a president and party that, to my mind, were doing a pretty okay job in the face of overwhelming challenges? What, in god’s name, made them think that Republicans have better solutions? How could so many Floridians place their faith in Rick Scott—an ugly poster-boy for the greedy, unprincipled excess of the previous decade?
Just two years ago, voters nationwide chose Democrats to lead them out of the scary darkness that was 2008: two draining wars, unprecedented international disrepute, and a tanking economy teetering at the abyss. Republicans immediately settled on a strategy: oppose everything the Democrats advance and let the weight of the circumstances they inherited drag them down.
It succeeded brilliantly. If Republicans were a tenth as good at governing as they are at politics, life would be better in these United States.
After he was elected president, Barack Obama went into triage mode, prioritizing our nation’s multiple crises. He passed a huge stimulus bill to clot the hemorrhaging economy, announced a withdrawal from Iraq and focused strategy in Afghanistan, and tackled health care—the biggest contributor to long-term deficit projections, and with 50 million uninsured the nation’s greatest domestic shame.
Republicans, who had either created or ignored these problems during their previous decade in power, vilified him as soft and socialistic. Democrats, more interested in policy than punditry, let them. And a fearful and frustrated electorate drank the Republican Kool-Aid: “Unemployment is at 10%. The deficit is out of control. Don’t stop to consider how it got this way. Two years was plenty of time to fix things. Throw the bums out!”
The result was the largest reshuffling of the House of Representative in 50 years.
It should’ve been so easy for Democrats. Unemployment is the result of a financial crisis fueled by years of Republican deregulation and tax policies that reward short-term gain.
Economic gains made in the past decade have gone solely to the wealthiest Americans. And yes, the deficit has grown by leaps and bounds in the past two years—to prevent a worldwide depression. It grew in equal strides under Republicans—to pay for tax cuts for the rich and a needless and tragic war that voters have largely forgotten.
But fear is about the future, not the past. In that regard, Republicans should have been equally vulnerable. Their laughable Agenda for America offers nothing of substance other than tax cuts and repeal of the new health care law. And yet, as a result of the lopsided election they now trumpet a mandate to undo the previous two years. That will take us back to 2008—not a pretty place.
Republicans now control 20 of 26 Florida seats in the U.S. Congress.
Republican control of state government is even more substantial. In fact, the 2010 election eliminated any semblance of Democratic influence in Tallahassee. With the governor, all three cabinet positions and super-majorities in the Legislature, Florida now rivals Utah as the most lopsided Republican state government in the nation. This despite the fact that there are 600,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state.
Unlike in Washington D.C., where gridlock is expected, Republicans are plotting ways to flex their unprecedented muscle in Tallahassee.
They have already announced plans to impose additional restrictions on abortion, further expand school vouchers, and override at least nine vetoes by moderate Gov. Charlie Crist. And with an absence of controls, right wing extremists will likely have greater access and influence. Liberty Counsel director Mathew Staver has already stated that he will try to convince conservative legislators to introduce a new anti-gay adoption ban statute as early as 2011. Governor-elect Rick Scott is on the record as supporting an adoption ban.
If Scott is smart he will discourage such talk. His slogan was “Let’s get to work.” He was elected as a turnaround expert by Floridians who fear that the state economy can no longer coast on tourism, population growth and real estate development.
Scott won by less than 70,000 votes, and in exit polls, 62% of voters said they have reservations about him. It would be a mistake for Scott to misinterpret the recent election as a call to greater social conservatism.
Especially in light of the one very positive result of the mid-terms. By the necessary 60% margin, Florida voters passed two constitutional amendments that will result in the redrawing of state and federal congressional districts so that they no longer favor incumbents or a single party. The new districts will be in place by 2012. The state’s population centers have clear Democratic majorities. If Republicans overstep, watch for the pendulum to swing back, fast.
And LGBT voters could lead the way. Nationwide exit polls showed that 31% of us—almost one in three—voted Republican in the mid-terms, a whopping 50% increase over 2008. Clearly that shift was not based on social issues.
But to win back LGBT votes—and those in the “moveable middle” of mostly Independent voters—Democrats will have to grow a spine.
You must be logged in to post a comment.