The Coming Political Tsunami Part II

Peggy Noonan with another insightful column in the Wall Street Journal about the upcoming elections.  Noonan, I think perhaps better than most, has captured the mood of the voters right now.  Whether this translates into a Republican majority or a complete repudiation of President Obama is too soon for anybody to guess.  We can guess though that the incoming Congress will be less progressive and more concentrated on the economy regardless of political affiliation.  Excerpt with my highlights: 

.....It is Monday, Sept. 20,.....CNBC is holding a town hall for the president. A woman stands—handsome, dignified, black, a person with presence. She looks as if she may be what she turns out to be, an Obama supporter.....The president looked relieved when she stood. Perhaps he thought she might lob a sympathetic question that would allow him to hit a reply out of the park. Instead, and in the nicest possible way, Velma Hart lobbed a hand grenade.

.......'I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are." She said, "The financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family." She said, "My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot-dogs-and-beans era of our lives. But, quite frankly, it is starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we are headed.'

What a testimony. And this is the president's base. He got that look public figures adopt when they know they just took one right in the chops on national TV and cannot show their dismay.....

...But it was the word Mrs. Hart used that captured everything: "exhausted." From what I see, that's how a lot of Democrats feel. They've turned silent, too, like people who witnessed a car crash and can't talk anymore about the reasons for the accident or how many were injured.  This election is more and more shaping up into a contest between the Exhausted and the Enraged.

.....But Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee suggests I have the wrong word for the Republican base. The word, she says, is not enraged, but 'livid.'.....There are two major developments, she says, that are new this year and insufficiently noted, but they're going to shape election outcomes in 2010 and beyond. First, Washington is being revealed in a new way. The American people now know, "with real sophistication," everything that happens in the capital. 'I find a much more knowledgeable electorate, and it is a real-time response,'.....The Internet isn't just a tool for organization and fund-raising, it has given citizens access to information they never had before. "The more they know," Ms. Blackburn observes, "the less they like Washington."

Second is the rise of women as a force. They 'are the drivers in this election cycle,'.....

....Why would more women be focusing more intently on politics this year than before? Blackburn hypothesizes: 'Women are always focusing on a generation or two down the road. Women make the education and health-care decisions for their families....and so they have become more politically involved.....'

.....Ms. Blackburn suggested, further in the conversation, that government's reach into the personal lives of families, including new health-care rules and the prospect of higher taxes, plus the rise in public information on how Washington works and what it does, had prompted mothers to rebel.

.....How does 2010 compare with 1994 in terms of historical significance? Ms. Blackburn says there's an unnoted story there, too. Whereas 1994 was historic as a party victory, a shift in political power, this year feels more organic, more from-the-ground, and potentially deeper. She believes 2010 will mark "a philosophical shift," the beginning of a change in national thinking regarding the role of the individual and the government.

.....The media, Ms. Blackburn says, do not fully appreciate 'how livid people are with Washington.' They see the anger but don't understand its implications. 'They're getting right that people want change, but they're wrong about what that change is going to be.' The mainstream media famously like the horse race.....But if Ms. Blackburn is right, the election, and its meaning, will be more interesting than the old, classic jockeying. And the outcomes won't be controlled by the good ol' boys but by those she calls "the great new gals."

Link:  The Enraged Vs. the Exhausted.