Experts on both sides have been talking about this year's potential congressional shift as being like the historic 1994 elections. In those elections, Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate, giving the GOP control of both houses.
Some have started to describe the potential impact of this year's results as being closer to those of 1894. The 1880s and early 1890s were an era of what some have called political deadlock. Elections in the years leading up to 1894 for Congress, president, and governors generally produced tight results. The economic disaster of 1893 and 1894 convinced voters that Republicans could solve the economic problems of the nation. Several states, including West Virginia, which had voted Democratic for decades, moved to the Republican column. West Virginia remained Republican until 1932. Republicans gained 130 seats in the House of Representatives in 1894 and captured the presidency in 1896.
Our current economic crisis is serious and deep. Even though some indicators rise and fall, unemployment remains at severely high levels. Democratic intervention has not helped and has actually made the debt worse. We do not have the financial capability at this point to engage in the minor deficit spending recommended by John Maynard Keynes that was used from time to time by Democrats in the last century. Our entire conception of political expectations needs to be overhauled and government reduced considerably. Liberal media types say that the GOP has no program and no vision, just "no." Such claims are out and out lies. We know what needs to be done, but do we even have the guts to do it when we return to power?
Elections, however, are not won in the beginning of October. Democratic pollsters are claiming that Republican leads in some areas are narrowing, so we cannot relax over the next month.
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