Eugene Robinson on the Spoiled Brat Electorate

Image from source, Washington Post

There is a reason that I'm just a hobbyist blogger, and that Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.  I can speak my mind, sometimes with clarity, and sometimes with humor.  But what Robinson says in the piece excerpted below is something I've been struggling to articulate for a long time now. Yes, in mid-term elections, the party in power usually sustains losses. Yes, when the economy is bad, the electorate tends to turn to the other party.

But what if the other party is headed by increasingly daffy cartoon characters? What if the other party is even more unpopular than the one in power? What if the other party's policy plan is the very same one that got us into the pickle we're in?  For instance, we're told that extending the Bush tax cuts will allow corporations to hire people with all that extra money.  Even though those tax cuts were in place in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. . .and they aren't hiring now!  In short, though the pendulum swing to the right makes sense historically, it doesn't make sense practically.  So why are people ready to vote the Republicans in anyway?  Does "Speaker Boner Boehner" sound good to you?

[Excerpt]

The spoiled-brat American electorate

According to polls, Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue. Voters appear to be so fed up with the Democrats that they're ready to toss them out in favor of the Republicans -- for whom, according to those same polls, the nation has even greater contempt. This isn't an "electoral wave," it's a temper tantrum. . .

Read more at: Washington Post