Midterms’ Real Winner? Independent Voters and (Maybe) Fiscal Sanity

In a new column
at Time.com, I take the measure of the Republican wave in the
midterms. While there’s no question that the GOP won huge, that’s
not the same thing as saying voters affirmatively embraced the
Republican agenda (indeed, it is far from clear that there is a
clearly drawn agenda).

Yet Republicans mistake the meaning of the midterms at their own
peril. These elections were a particularly frank repudiation of
Barack Obama and the past six years of failed stimulus, disastrous
foreign policy, and rotten economic news. Even the president’s
historic health-care reform remains a negative with voters. But if
the GOP thinks it has a mandate to return to the equally unpopular
bailout economics and social conservatism of the George W. Bush
years, it too will be sent packing as early as the next
election.

A few days before the midterms, just 33% of respondents in an ABC
News/Washington Post poll gave the GOP a “favorable” rating, which
was 6 percentage points lower than what they gave the Democrats. A
whopping 60% said that President Obama had no “clear plan for
governing,” but even more (66%)
said the Republicans lacked one.

My biggest concern is that between a declared interest in hiking
defense spending and “protecting” and “preserving” budget-busting
entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security and a pent-up
desire to reward favored constituents, the GOP is going to crank up
spending.

Read the whole thing here.

Watch “2014 Midterms: The Very Best (and Worst!) Outcomes”