Jonathan Gruber, a chief architect of the Obamacare fiasco, thinks that voters are stupid. I would contend that it is the politicians and their entourages that, while maybe not individually stupid, are collectively unwise and certainly do stupid things.
I read an article about that warned against reading too much into big election swings and over-reading shifts in public sentiment about a particular party or ideology based on a given year’s election results. I disagree that big elections do not reflect big shifts in voter trends. The problem comes when one party makes a big gain in congress, the white house or both, the winning party almost always starts doing stupid things.
In 1994 the republicans rode a wave of sentiment shift against Bill Clinton and the democrats to make historic gains and take control of both the House and Senate. What did they do with their voter mandate? They impeached a sitting president and shutdown the government over budget squabbles. The electorate predictably took away the levers of power. Similarly in 2006 and again in 2008 the democrats emphatically took over the reins of governement. And what did the newly empowered democrats do? They rammed a healthcare bill no one wanted down the throats of the American people. They enacted stifling regulations on the economy that muted the economic recovery. So what did the “stupid” voters do? They spanked the democrats in 2010 and again in 2014. Had the voters known in 2012 what they know now about the Affordable Care Act and IRS corruption, it is likely they would have punished the democrats then as well and we would have inaugurated President Romney.
Many voters aren’t as informed as they should be. However, voters know stupid when they see it. They also know arrogance, corruption, and deception when they see it, and they have seen a lot of it over the past six years.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
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Otis Wants Bread: Mid-Term Musings
Otis Wants Bread: Mid-Term Musings: A few hours before we start to see election returns from the mid-term elections and a few things rattle around in my head: I'll believ...
Mid-Term Musings
A few hours before we start to see election returns from the mid-term elections and a few things rattle around in my head:
I'll believe it when I see it - I've seen the polls and I've seen the Washington Post, CNN, and New York Times all rate the probability of the republicans taking the senate at somewhere between 70% to 98%. I recall polls all showing a tight race between Obama and Romney in 2012 too. The democrats still have a lead in demographics and analytics which is what won the 2012 race for them when by all historic measures, Obama's first term was a dismal failure and he should have been trounced. Maybe the republicans will take the senate. Maybe this will be a wave election like 2010. However, the republicans have yet to prove they understand big data and social media. The republicans also have great aim when shooting themselves in the foot. I'll believe a big night for the GOP when I see it and not until then.
Don't say stupid stuff - If the GOP takes the Senate, I wonder what Mitch McConnell will have to say. Hopefully he won't say something stupid like he did in the 2010 mid-terms when instead of making comments about using the republican congressional momentum to work for the benefit of the American public, McConnell instead stated that the GOP would work to make Obama a 1-term president. How did that work out? The stupidity of that remark confounds me to this day.
Win, serve your time, then go home - I'd vote for almost any candidate who is committed to enacting term limits on congress.
Gerrymandering, it's been here all along - It is funny how democrats and their friends in the media have suddenly discovered gerrymandering as if it was something the republicans just authored and just started doing. Democrats gerrymander as do republicans. It only makes the news however, when it hurts the democrats.
Crime pays - If Scott Walker loses, it will be a crime...literally a crime, just like when Ted Stevens had his senate seat in Alaska taken from him in 2008. The democrats play hardball, there is no question about it - laws and ethics be damned.
Eric Holder on the scene - Eric Holder announced that DOJ was sending people to monitor polling stations for the mid-terms. I wonder if he is sending the thugs from the New Black Panther Party who stood by with clubs as people went to vote in Pennsylvania in 2008? Maybe Louis Lerner will be there harassing conservatives because there is not a smidgeon of corruption in the IRS and Holder's DOJ is doing everything they can to prove it...no matter what the evidence says.
Obama, we have a problem... - The republicans can be as maddening as the democrats, but for different reasons. I hope they take the senate, if for no other reason, to show Obama just how badly his policies have failed the American people and that we need a new direction. A little humility would go a long ways for Obama. It's a shame he's not the leader her thinks he is.
I'll believe it when I see it - I've seen the polls and I've seen the Washington Post, CNN, and New York Times all rate the probability of the republicans taking the senate at somewhere between 70% to 98%. I recall polls all showing a tight race between Obama and Romney in 2012 too. The democrats still have a lead in demographics and analytics which is what won the 2012 race for them when by all historic measures, Obama's first term was a dismal failure and he should have been trounced. Maybe the republicans will take the senate. Maybe this will be a wave election like 2010. However, the republicans have yet to prove they understand big data and social media. The republicans also have great aim when shooting themselves in the foot. I'll believe a big night for the GOP when I see it and not until then.
Don't say stupid stuff - If the GOP takes the Senate, I wonder what Mitch McConnell will have to say. Hopefully he won't say something stupid like he did in the 2010 mid-terms when instead of making comments about using the republican congressional momentum to work for the benefit of the American public, McConnell instead stated that the GOP would work to make Obama a 1-term president. How did that work out? The stupidity of that remark confounds me to this day.
Win, serve your time, then go home - I'd vote for almost any candidate who is committed to enacting term limits on congress.
Gerrymandering, it's been here all along - It is funny how democrats and their friends in the media have suddenly discovered gerrymandering as if it was something the republicans just authored and just started doing. Democrats gerrymander as do republicans. It only makes the news however, when it hurts the democrats.
Crime pays - If Scott Walker loses, it will be a crime...literally a crime, just like when Ted Stevens had his senate seat in Alaska taken from him in 2008. The democrats play hardball, there is no question about it - laws and ethics be damned.
Eric Holder on the scene - Eric Holder announced that DOJ was sending people to monitor polling stations for the mid-terms. I wonder if he is sending the thugs from the New Black Panther Party who stood by with clubs as people went to vote in Pennsylvania in 2008? Maybe Louis Lerner will be there harassing conservatives because there is not a smidgeon of corruption in the IRS and Holder's DOJ is doing everything they can to prove it...no matter what the evidence says.
Obama, we have a problem... - The republicans can be as maddening as the democrats, but for different reasons. I hope they take the senate, if for no other reason, to show Obama just how badly his policies have failed the American people and that we need a new direction. A little humility would go a long ways for Obama. It's a shame he's not the leader her thinks he is.
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