As this article in Rolling Stone illustrates so graphically, the Republicans in power for the last few years in Congress (and the same can be said for the Romney/Healey administration) were incredibly ineffective. Whether it was the House leadership’s failure to deal with Foley, Romney’s Mass.-bashing during his presidential campaign, or the general lack of policy progress that was seen nationwide, the current crop of Republicans showed that they can’t do the job of governing.
A poll during the gubernatorial campaign here in MA showed that more voters agreed with Healey on key issues–immigration, tax rollback, etc.–than with Deval, and this was before the worst of the negative campaigning. So why did Deval have such a big lead? Certainly his personality and leadership helped, as did the amazing grassroots effort that many of us were involved in. But, more than anything, it was because people were fed up by the status quo and wanted a change. Healey had an uphill battle from the beginning, and of course she completely blew every opportunity to climb that hill.
The challenge for the Democrats for the next two years is to show how much more competent they are than the Republicans. Similarly, the challenge for the Republicans is to show that those who remain are more competent than those who were kicked out. It should be no surprise that the president stood up and indicated his intent to work closely with the Democratic Congress. Both parties stand to gain from appearing effective and conciliatory right now.
For Democrats, we have to remember that we have not won the ideological battles. While we work on that, we have to focus on holding our elected officials to our expectation that they will govern like the leaders we believe them to be.
I proudly voted for Deval on Election Day and worked a town for the campaign after the primary. He was a good candidate, his campaign was effectively run, and he’ll make a good governor.
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That being said, I think the above analysis is accurate. The GOP in Massachusetts and in DC has failed to make life better for Americans after 16 years in the Corner Office and 12 years in control of at least one branch of Congress and 6 years in the White House. Instead, the GOP has focused on ruling through ideology rather than governing through addressing reality.
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Pragmatism is the word for the next two years. Democrats, especially here in the Commonwealth, cannot afford to become cocky and overstate our victories this year. Hope and inspiration won the primary, and a huge anti-GOP sentiment significantly contributed to the momentum that carried Deval to victory on Tuesday.
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The only mandate that Deval and Congressional Democrats can claim from the election is one that will force all sides to come together and cooperate towards fixing government, restoring accountability, and working to improve quality of life. That’s what voters wanted this year.
I agree, corruption and incompetence were huge issues, and we may not have taken the Senate without them. However, I disagree that we won no ideological battles. First: the claim that voters agreed with Healey on “key issues”: perhaps things like immigration and a 0.3% tax cut weren’t key issues at all. Maybe education, health care, stem cells.. Nationally, too, Democrats ran on issues such as Iraq, health care, social security, stem cells, and the minimum wage. A large amount of these victorious candidates are economic populists.
It was not just Republican incompetence, it was progressive ideology as well. We would not have won the close Senate races in Montana, Missouri, and Virginia — and we wouldn’t seen such large margins in Vermont and Pennsylvania — if it weren’t for the Dems’ economically populist messages that drew more rural, socially conservative voters into the Democratic fold. You’re right that voters largely didn’t change their ideology — but the difference was that several Democrats finally started to make economic populism a centerpiece of their campaigns. Democratic candidates don’t need to “win” any ideological battles, per se, they just need to become better advocates for the progressive economics that in which the public already believes.