- I get the sense that many might spin tonight’s Republican victory as a loss for the Tea Party: when Tea Partiers stepped out on a limb to endorse one of their own -- for example, Joe Miller (Alaska), Christine O’Donnell (Delaware), and Sharron Angle (Nevada) -- he lost badly. (Rand Paul won a resounding victory in Kentucky, however) The “Tea Party candidates” who did win (Marco Rubio et al.) have careers that aren’t defined by grassroots protest and can exist independently of it.
And there’s a much bigger inconvenient reality for all those who emailed me about “taking back the country” -- the ability of the Great White Middle to reorganize Washington has been greatly diminished.
The 1994 midterm was strikingly similar to the one we just experienced: the president was generally loathed and distrusted by Middle Americans; he had recently tried to push through a new healthcare plan, was viewed as anti-military, and had a left-wing maniac for a wife.
In ’94, White America changed both chambers of Congress. (The “revolution,” of course, eventuated in increased budgets for departments the revolutionaries promised to abolish and wonkish legislation like “welfare reform.” But what’s new?)
In 2010, White America could only manage the House.
After 2012, the prospect of “taking back our country” through the democratic process will have become a quaint dream.
