Nationally, the Republicans had a pretty good day and the Democrats had a pretty bad day. (The Democrats had an oddly good day — mostly personality driven — where they managed to field candidates in our local Tippecanoe County races.)
The human mind being what it is, I immediately began looking for analogous situations. To me, this one feels a lot like 1994. Being a white man, I’m sensitive to the white guy zeitgeist. (Punk bands searching for a name – feel free to use that). Maybe I’m projecting a whole lot of crap on the electorate that doesn’t belong there, but I think the white men were feeling angry and picked upon and were, therefore, more motivated to vote. I remember having that feeling in 1994 as a college student as well. Dennis Miller had a bit about how, as a white guy, he was everyone’s asshole that resonated with me at the time. Over the years, I’ve developed more of an appreciation of race and gender based privileges and an ability to not take criticisms on those subjects personally. But that kind of equanimity isn’t universal.
I’m not trying, by the way, to make the case that whatever crap white guys have been taking lately isn’t justified to a greater or lesser extent. But even justified criticism provokes a response. If I’m correct about the white guy zeitgeist, the response of feeling picked upon is to be more motivated to vote. If the rest of the electorate chooses to stay home, you have a situation where something like 16 – 17% (30% turnout times 55% of the vote) chooses the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate.
If it is like 1994, then we’ll see a lot of unproductive slavering over the President — particularly in light of the strengthened filibuster the minority Republicans are giving to the Democrats & the Presidential veto — followed by a Presidential election where things get reset a little bit.
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