Democrats on the wrong end of the politics of discontent
Populist anger turns sharply against obama and his party
Washington: President Barack Obama and the Democrats rode a wave of anger aimed at the presidency of George W. Bush to victories in 2006 and 2008. Now, a year to the day after Obama was sworn into office, in a reversal of fortunes, populist anger has turned sharply against the president and his party.
The politics of discontent rolled across Massachusetts on Tuesday, delivering the seat held for more than four decades by the late Senator Edward Kennedy to the Republican state Senator Scott Brown in an upset of historic proportions. Gloomy Democrats were left to wonder whether they and Obama have an answer to the anger that can head off potentially devastating losses in the November midterm elections and faced more potential fractures within their ranks.
The dissatisfaction has led to a massive erosion in the support Democrats once enjoyed among independents, who were critical to the party's success in 2006 and 2008. Without exit polls, it was difficult to say with any precision Tuesday night how independents voted in Massachusetts. But there was no way Brown could have won a state where Democrats have a huge edge over Republicans in registration without a significant margin among independents.
Recriminations
Tuesday's loss triggered Democratic recriminations, a clear indication of the confusion, disappointment and disillusionment that has set in over the past few months as the party has lost gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and now an almost sacred Senate seat in one of the most Democratic states in the nation.
Democratic strategists privately heaped criticism on Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley as a lacklustre candidate and on her campaign as asleep at the switch until it was too late. Her team fired back that the voters believed Democrats in Washington have done more for big banks and auto companies than for working families and that a national wave threatened serious damage to the party.
The immediate issue is the health care bill. Democrats from the House and Senate have been negotiating furiously, trying to harmonise competing bills.
Now the issue is whether they can quickly agree how to pass a bill and whether they face a public backlash by doing so. Some Democrats warned Tuesday that they must scale back their agenda in the face of the Massachusetts results.
"It's why moderates and independents even in a state as Democratic as Massachusetts just aren't buying our message," Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana said. "They just don't believe the answers we are currently proposing are solving their problems. That's something that has to be corrected."
— Washington Post News Service
