| From Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers Dear Friends,
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Not Right Wing but Still Angry
Truthdig: Nov. 4, 2009, Originally in the Washington Post
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J.-Tuesday's elections were a rebuke to the right wing and
a warning to Democrats.
They were also a timely reminder that President Obama needs to tune up his
celebrated political organization and find a way to make Americans feel
hopeful again.
The night's biggest loser was the national conservative political
machine-the wealthy tax-cutters at the Club for Growth and the
Palin-Limbaugh-Beck complex. The Beltway right shoved aside local
Republicans in an upstate New York congressional race, imposed their own
candidate who didn't even live in the district, and went down in a heap.
To understand the importance of the defeat of third-party conservative Doug
Hoffman by Democrat Bill Owens in New York's 23rd District, consider the
narrative that would have been woven if Hoffman had won.
Combined with Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia governors'
races, a Hoffman triumph would have been heralded as the beginning of a new
conservative revolution, a reproach to Republican moderates as well as Obama
Democrats, and a sign that "big government," including the Democrats' health
care plan, was on the run
Instead, voters in the district (parts of which have been Republican since
Abraham Lincoln) staged a different kind of rebellion. Furious that big
conservative money and national personalities such as Sarah Palin and Glenn
Beck had forced out Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava-the official, moderate,
locally chosen Republican candidate-they turned to Owens.
The Democrat was the perfect candidate for a middle-of-the road protest. He
had only recently been a political independent and presented himself as
having no ideological edges. The spurned Scozzafava backed him, creating a
moderate united front. June O'Neill of the New York Democratic state
committee called Owens' victory a "backlash" against "the way they treated
our friend and neighbor." We know who "they" are.
The Owens win puts the victories of Republicans Chris Christie in New Jersey
and Bob McDonnell in Virginia in a different light. Both won governorships
by focusing on the need to win voters smack in the middle of the electorate:
moderates, independents and suburbanites. David Axelrod, Obama's senior
adviser, engaged in a bit of self-serving hyperbole when he said in an
interview that McDonnell ran "not as a Sarah Palin Republican, but more as a
Barack Obama centrist," yet his point was right: McDonnell knew where the
votes were.
So did Christie, who capitalized on a deep, personal disaffection with
incumbent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Christie, like McDonnell, managed in
reverse the excite-the-base, win-the-middle strategy Democrats pursued so
effectively in 2006 and 2008. Christie ran up huge margins in Republican
counties, but also won over previously Democratic voters who were angry but
not ideological.
Democrats will highlight Obama's continued strong approval ratings in New
Jersey as part of their larger argument that these contests were local in
character. But the disaffection in both Virginia and New Jersey-and the
unexpected narrowness of New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's re-election
margin, despite his record-breaking campaign spending-should worry all
incumbents, particularly governors seeking re-election next year. And after
their strong showings in the last two national elections, Democrats happen
to constitute a large share of the pool of incumbents.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, as he made his way to Corzine's concession speech at
a hotel here, said he sees an electorate in a dark mood. "There are two
things happening," the New Jersey Democrat noted. "One is fear. The other is
punishment. Voters fear for themselves and their families, and they want to
punish anyone who got them into this condition."
What Lautenberg underscored is a spirit far different than the buoyant
confidence Barack Obama inspired a year ago. And the Obama change-agents,
particularly the young, were notably absent from the voting booths this
week. In Virginia, a state Obama carried comfortably last year, a majority
of those who showed up to vote on Tuesday said they had backed John McCain.
This much more Republican electorate produced a GOP landslide all the way
down the Virginia ballot.
That is the fact from this week that Democrats would be fools to ignore. It's
not a resurgent right wing that should trouble Obama's party. Indeed, the
stronger the right's role in shaping the Republican message, the harder it
will be for middle-of-the-road voters to use the Republicans to express
their discontent. But for the moment, the thrill is gone from politics, and
that is very dangerous for the mainstream progressive movement that Obama
promised to build.
E.J. Dionne's e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.
© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
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