Voter Message: We Are Not All Socialists Now
The story line goes like this: Recent elections find voters in an angry, "anti-incumbent" mood.
"This is how it goes in 2010 at the ballot box," says Time magazine. "Old orders are upended, political lions become roadkill, chosen successors get left behind and the outsider, riding a wave of discontent, becomes the new front-runner."
"It's an anti-Washington, anti-establishment year," adds the Associated Press. "And candidates with ties to either better beware. Any doubt about just how toxic the political environment is for congressional incumbents and candidates hand-picked by national Republican and Democratic leaders disappeared late Tuesday."
No. What voters said was: "It's not the incumbents, stupid. It's how they voted. It's what they stand for." No incumbent who voted against the Bush/Obama bank bailouts, the "stimulus" package and Obama-Care lost his or her job.
Voters hate the bank bailouts. They hate the government takeover of car companies. They do not believe that the $800 billion stimulus package stimulated anything but bigger government. They reject Obama-Care and think it's costly and likely to worsen health care. Incumbents who voted for these things now face the music.
Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief that Mark Critz — Democrat and former staffer of the late Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. — won the special election to succeed Murtha. But the pro-life, anti-gun control Critz said he'd have voted against Obama-Care. Hardly a ringing endorsement for the Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda of higher taxes, more spending and bigger government.
At their convention in Utah earlier this month, Republicans dumped incumbent and TARP supporter Sen. Bob Bennett, who also co-sponsored a health care bill that smelled a lot like ObamaCare.
In Arkansas, another TARP supporter, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, must go through a June runoff election against a Democrat who painted her as a buddy to Wall Street banks. Calling Lincoln "Bailout Blanche," her opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, attacked her for taking contributions from Wall Street firms that received bailouts.
In March, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, lost her party's nomination for governor. Incumbent Gov. Rick Perry called her "Kay Bailout" over Hutchinson's vote for TARP. A Republican libertarian won the GOP primary for Senate in Kentucky.
In Florida, Republicans dumped Gov. Charlie Crist in the primary race for Senate. Crist, in a photo used against him by his opponents, hugged President Obama. He supported the stimulus package. He also supported ObamaCare, a plan rejected by Florida voters who favor its repeal. His Tea Party-backed opponent, Marco Rubio, portrayed Crist as insufficiently fiscally conservative.
No comments:
Post a Comment