With a Big GOP Wave, Americans Voted for More Gridlock—And They Knew What They Wanted

On election night, TV talking heads watching the
Republican wave/surge/tidal flow across the country earnestly
looked at each other and asked if the new Republican Senate
majority can work with the president and overcome the gridlock that
has so turned off voters. Umm…what?

Yeah, I know Americans keep telling voters that they can’t stand
“partisan
bickering” and really
hate Congress for its inability to get things done. But there’s
a strong hint that they’re regurgitating sentiments that all of
those right-thinking pundits tell them that they’re supposed to
mouth. After all, those same Americans just handed control of the
Senate and an expanded House majority to the political party that
has
stalled the president’s appointees,
challenged his policies, and
attacked him at every turn.

Could it be that, kumbaya language aside, the electorate
likes to see government frozen in its tracks? After all,
President Obama’s
personal approval ratings are also in the toilet, and his
signature policy—the Affordable Care Act—continues to evoke a

mass gag reflex from the public and was
specifically cited as a negative by almost half of voters in
this election.

So, if American voters don’t like Congress, and don’t like the
president, and don’t like the major piece of legislation that was
produced when Congress and the president last worked together, what
evidence do we have that the public is looking for more
close cooperation between the executive and legislative
branches?

In fact, polling finds that Americans think government is
too
powerful and too intrusive, with trimming back the size of the
state
popular among the younger voters that everybody watches so
closely. And if you want to restrain government,
divided government has a good historical record of achieving
restraint by accident, if not as a deliberate policy choice.

Americans don’t like gridlock? Maybe they think they’re not
supposed to like gridlock. But they just voted for more of
it. And they may well know what they’re doing.