Don’t over analyze elections

It’s after the election and full-blown analysis is in full drive for both sides. Even after losing over 60 seats in the House of Representatives, many on the left are saying that it wasn’t the policy that caused their defeat, but the message.

Some on the right would like to use this as a referendum on the excess spending and runaway deficits that they love to insert into their usual talking points. And to be honest, both of them do actually have a point. The Democrats messaging was continuously inconsistent and failed to resonate with much of the electorate. It’s gone from targeting House Minority Leader John Boehner to undisclosed campaign funds to “it would have been worse without us.” to a number of other things that really had nothing to do with the economy, which was what really was in the minds of voters at the end of the day.

But they can’t just blame it on what they say. It’s what they did. Or didn’t do. If the unemployment rate was say 6.6 percent instead of 9.6 percent, they could have had the worst message in the world and probably kept control of the House of Representatives. They still would have lost a lot of seats but not over 60.

Sure in two years, unemployment wasn’t going to be at a decent level but the policies crafted within the two years could have been different and may have had a different effect on the economy, therefore possibly saving a number of seats.

As for the GOP’s constant mantra about deficits and spending, they have a point but, they make it as if all the deficits and spending just appeared in the last two years.

While we’ve spent a large amount of money since January of 2009, they know that in the past they’ve been a cosigner to reckless spending just like their colleagues across the aisle.

It’s why the Tea Party pushes conservatives as much as they push the left. They’ve just been put back because of what the side was serving the public and the current state of the economy. So let’s not over analyze these results. One side messed up, dropped the ball and the other was there to capitalize off of it.

Posted by Ian Bridgeforth on Nov 5 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.