PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH VOTERS IN 2010?

One possible conclusion to draw from this election is that the American public does not know what it wants and, in the words of Mark Twain, they “deserve to get it, real hard”. Why would the voters swing hard back one way, only two years after electing a competent, intelligent, well spoken and decent man as president? The simple explanation, which certainly covers part of what is happening, is that the economy is down in a major way and people are scared. The party in power always loses in America when elections come round during down economic times.

Could it be that what we are seeing is, in effect, a cry for help, the rumblings of some sort of fatal discontent with our system which, again and again, gives voters choices they don’t like? Frustration comes when what you want done can not be effected by voting.  Ultimate frustration builds to boiling when you believe you can get nothing and that previous efforts have gone totally unrealized.

My view is what most American voters want is pragmatism and to forget about ideology. They want their jobs back, they want decent pay and they want to be able to afford to pay for a lifestyle at least somewhat similar to those they see around them. A new poll shows most voters don’t understand what Obama has done on their behalf, so why not send a loud message to Washington? 

In a nation where income, and wealth, inequality has grown over the last thirty years,  it is no wonder that people don’t necessarily see government spending as the answer. Many see it as a threat to what little they have gained or to their ability just to hang on. The rich have gotten filthy rich, the near rich have done really well and a small, upper sliver of the middle class as also advanced economically. Until the housing bubble collapse of 2008, a good portion of the rest of the population thought they were doing well, too. Afterward, it became clear that their “prosperity” was a misunderstanding between themselves and the banks. Oopps.

We are swimming in the aftermath of the ‘08 disaster and it is no wonder that millions of people are upset, angry and disappointed. The Tea Party groups and the Republicans have given some of those voters a direction in which to take their anger and we all have to live with whatever might come our way. If the Obama administration has sensed the public mood, instead of trying to bask in and enjoy their grand victory of 2008, the results of this day would likely have been far different.

Doug Terr, 11.2.10

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