Why the Dems lost this election (IMHO).
It seems providential that the Republican symbol is the elephant, for I believe the Dems lost this election to the invisible elephant in the room. Or rather, elephants — Republican masters of deception who managed to con the American people into blaming Obama for everything they did to kill the economy over the last six years, according to this brilliant piece of insight from Jason Easley:
The genius of the plan was that it was a hostage situation. Republicans took the legislative process hostage and refused to pass anything. Senate Republicans obstruction legislation big and small all with the goal of building frustration and discontent with government. After the American people had become enraged by “broken Washington,” Republicans promised that Washington could be fixed if they were given control of the Senate.
Never did Republicans admit that they were the reason Washington was “broken.” Instead, they blamed the people who were trying to get things done. Republicans blamed Sen. Harry Reid and President Obama. The GOP ran a con on the American people. They created the problem then promised to solve it.
And the American people bought this con. But somehow, the elephants in the room managed to remain invisible as shown in this
excellent piece by Sam Pizzigoti:
We are witnessing, in short, still another campaign season that sheds no light whatsoever on the staggering concentration of wealth at America’s summit, the inequality that President Obama three years ago — in a fleeting moment of political clarity — called “the defining issue of our time.”
These days, almost everybody with a finger on America’s pulse — except those running for public office — seems to recognize the threat this inequality poses.
He references Janice Yellen:
In a real democracy, Yellen’s basic charge — that the rising wealth of America’s rich appears to be choking off opportunity for America’s hard-pressed — would be setting off political fireworks.
In that real democracy, incumbents would now be squirming to explain why they’ve allowed the gap between the rich and the rest of us to widen on their watch. Challengers would be proudly presenting five-point plans for ending America’s ridiculously top-heavy distribution of income and wealth.
None of this has taken place....
[...]
To remain “competitive” in today’s political environment, candidates today need plenty of [rich] buddies like Mercer, Singer, and Robertson. They court these fantastically rich obsessively. They dare not give them cause for irritation.
So don’t expect our billionaire-bankrolled candidates to target — or even discuss — the ongoing concentration of America’s wealth. And don’t expect America’s voters, in turn, to concentrate on these candidates. Only 15 percent of voters, note Pew Research pollsters, are paying any serious attention to this fall’s campaigning.
The elephants — and their money — conned the voters into not turning out, thereby sweeping the election. (It's most likely there was widespread election fraud taking place as well, to suppress the vote. I expect this will take a long time to sort out.)
It's heartening to note that the voters trumped the money in some notable cases, such as the Richmond, CA mayoral and city council race:
The sweeping win in the David-and-Goliath story was seen by many as an excoriation of corporate influence in elections after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
Uche Uwahemu, who finished third in the mayoral race, said, "The election was a referendum on Chevron and the people obviously made it clear they did not appreciate the unnecessary spending by Chevron so they took it out on the rest of the candidates."
Another example is
here, by Josh Silver:
The Tallahassee campaign was a departure from the traditional approach to money in politics reform in three big ways. First, reform advocates framed the debate around fighting corruption and cronyism rather than "campaign finance reform" or "saving democracy." Second, they formed a real right-left coalition that included the Tea Party Network, the Florida Alliance of Retired Americans, and local chapters of the League of Women Voters and Common Cause -- bringing together progressives and conservatives willing to put their differences aside and work together. And finally, they refused to settle for piecemeal reforms and pushed for bold, transformative change in one fell swoop.
So when voters were engaged, their votes trump the money.
To get our democracy back, people must become engaged. Our job now is to shine a light on the elephants in the room. Jason Easley has more to say on how that can be done:
In 2016, it won’t be red state Democrats, but blue state Republicans who will be on the ballot fighting for their seats. Republicans won’t have Obama to blame anymore. The GOP will be held accountable by a bigger electorate.
Given these factors, it will surprise no one if the Senate confidence men and women meet their 2016 demise at the hands of their own con.
But we cannot just sit back and hope this will happen. Americans must become engaged, and see the elephants for who they really are: dupes of the rich.
1:05 PM PT: Updated 11/7/14 at 3:00 p.m. with addition of this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...