In the midst of extensive gnashing of teeth and discussion about the message of the 2014 election, let’s get one thing straight: there wasn’t one.
Here is why. Approximately 20% of eligible voters voted for Republicans, 16% voted for Democrats, and the rest did not vote. What did we learn? That 20% of Americans hate Obama and like Republicans. This is not news: this is the Republican base. So most of the Republican base voted, while most of the Democratic base did not. This led to a bad result for Democrats, but it is hardly a message.
It would be a huge mistake to conclude from this that the majority of the American people agree with the 20% who voted for Republicans. There is no reason to believe that the 64% of people who did not vote were distributed in their opinions the same way as the 36% who did. Indeed, every poll indicates exactly the opposite: that most of the voting public agree with the positions of the Democratic Party much more than those of the Republicans. The fact that the Democrats could not inspire them to vote in this election does not change that fact.
Of course, Republicans are crowing about a “mandate,” and are telling us over and over that the American people have spoken, this is what they want, and the President should go along with that. Unmentioned in all of this is that after the 2008 election, when 62% of the people voted and Republicans got thumped, or the 2012 election, when 58% of the people voted and Republicans got thumped, they did not accept that the vote constituted a mandate, and indeed, after both elections their stated goal was to oppose whatever it was that the Democrats were elected to do. It should surprise no one that Democrats feel the same way now. The difference is, the Democrats are justified in feeling that way, while the Republicans never were.