Well, after five years of "Hope and Change" many Americans are now beginning to take stock not only of where it is that they are in their lives, but as well as in what they perceive to be the direction, right or wrong, that their country might now be headed. And it would appear that most of them now seem to view nearly everything as coming up dandelions instead of coming up roses. And with the midterm elections now essentially right around the corner, I’m not at all sure how that perception of thing will likely come to impact election results.
Because, you see, these days Americans seem to be less than thrilled not only with their politicians, but with the future of the country, the sad state of our economy, and just about everything else. That would be according to many of the nation's pollsters, who say there is very little these days that the public still believes in. Now you would think that since we were told by our current president that he was the ‘one who we had all been waiting for’, that the American people would be much more optimistic about things. But apparently such is not the case.
For instance, according to the Washington Post's polling analyst Scott Clement: "With an 'everything is terrible' mindset, I'm mostly thinking about how after several years of cantankerous and unproductive lawmaking in Washington, there are very few political figures or institutions who the public trusts anymore." But why is it that things have become so unproductive? While there may be enough blame to go around, I would argue that the primary reason is because of the Democrat "my way, or the highway" approach to nearly everything.
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Barry "Almighty's" approval ratings are at a record low, while at pretty much the same time there’s a new Gallup Poll that shows confidence in the economy is dropping rather precipitously. And overall, poll ratings for Republicans and Democrats are down, according to a CBS Poll. And the numbers could mean some odd results come this November, with people heading into the midterm elections pessimistic about candidates on both sides of the ballot.
And it was Clement who also said that the nation's lawmakers are no longer getting the benefit of the doubt, and "the public has seen more and more issues where they're just not happy about where things are going and the place they often look to blame is Washington." And it was a Washington Post-ABC News poll that showed that many people even disapprove of the job that their own lawmakers are doing. Usually folks are a bit more willing to give the home folks the benefit of the doubt, but apparently that trend may be changing.
But still while people are dissatisfied, it doesn’t seem to be transferring to primary results, where only few incumbents have lost their bids this year, a fact pointed out by NBC News' Mark Murray. "The one mitigating factor here is that there are so many different reasons for their dissatisfaction," Murray said. "You have Republicans complaining about immigration, Democrats complaining that Congress isn't working with them, Republicans wanting to impeach the president, Democrats blaming Congress, and all of these different complaints don't really measure up to one single unifying message that probably is going to have every member of Congress running for the hills this election season."
Republicans are increasingly dissatisfied, and if voters turn to a "more conservative, third party candidate" that could split the vote, warned Tom Jensen, the director of the liberal Public Policy Polling . My own personal opinion, regarding this splitting of the vote, is that it accomplishes little more than to virtually guarantee a Democrat victory. And if you can sleep at night after aiding a Democrat to win then so be it. In the primaries I vote for the most conservative candidate in the race. In the general election I will vote for the Republican.
It was Murray who also pointed out, "The one mitigating factor here is that there are so many different reasons for their dissatisfaction." And he went on to say, "You have Republicans are complaining about immigration, Democrats complaining that Congress isn't working with them, Republicans wanting to impeach the president, Democrats blaming Congress, and all of these different complaints don't really measure up to one single unifying message that probably is going to have every member of Congress running for the hills this election season."
So what does any of this really mean? Personally, and I am far from being any sort of an expert on such matters, I don’t think anyone really knows other than to say there is a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to trying to determine just what things might look like on the morning of November 5th. And anyone who tells you differently is just blowing smoke. While I feel fairly confident that when the dust settles the Republicans will control Congress, but I worry that they will end up doing little more than to squander yet another opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment