When a shellacking doesn鈥檛 last
“We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people; change course; and to commit to making choices that they are demanding,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner.
Boehner didn’t say that last week. That’s what he said on the night the Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.
Of course, while Obama and his fellow Democrats were given a “shellacking” that night, they fiercely disagreed with Boehner’s assessment that the “will of the people” is some sort of unanimous demand for Democrats to start thinking like Republicans.
That wasn’t the case then, and it probably won’t be the case now – even after the president and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate were given yet, another “shellacking.”
Stopping Obama from doing anything, isn’t exactly a prescription for success, or for good governance.
Republicans may feel like flexing their political muscle now, but come January, they’ll still have to figure out a way to bridge the divide between themselves and Democrats, if they have any hopes of taking control of the White House in 2016.
Those people who voted last Tuesday, are nearly as fed-up with Republicans as they are with Democrats.
If Republicans follow the same path they’ve been following, but can’t do much more than try to repeal Obamacare, they could be the victims of a “shellacking” in 2016.
Besides, while many Democratic voters seemed to show a lack of support for their candidates last Tuesday, there’s a growing trend in the country to pass ballot initiatives that reflect the liberal will of those same Democratic candidates.
In Florida, where Republican Rick Scott narrowly held onto his seat as governor against Democratic challenger Charlie Crist (48.16 percent to 47.05 percent), those voting for the legalization of medical marijuana easily outnumbered those who voted against it 42.4 percent to 57.6 percent.
That amendment failed, because it needed a 60 percent majority to pass.
Voters in Washington, D.C., Alaska and in Oregon have now approved the sale or use of recreational marijuana. They’ve joined the states of Washington and Colorado which both legalized pot in 2012.
In the state of Washington, there were two competing ballot initiatives, which were split along conservative/liberal lines.
Initiative 591 would’ve stopped the government from performing background checks for gun purchases. Initiative 594 was designed to do just the opposite. It would set-up statewide background checks for gun purchases.
Sixty percent of Washington’s voters supported background checks.
There will certainly be some future discussion in Congress about raising the minimum wage.
Republicans, who’ve historically found reasons not to support raising the minimum wage, should take note of what happened last Tuesday in a number of states.
Voters in Arkansas, Nebraska, Alaska and South Dakota all voted in favor of raising the minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25.
The votes for all of those increases weren’t even close.
In Nebraska, it was 62 percent-38 percent; in Arkansas it was 65 percent-35 percent; in Alaska it was 69 percent-31 percent; and in South Dakota it was 55 percent-45 percent.
So, even if there’s little support among Republicans in Congress to raise the minimum wage, there’s certainly support among many Americans for it.
What’s strikingly similar about the four states where voters approved it last week, is the fact that Nebraska, Alaska, Arkansas and South Dakota are all Republican-dominated red states.
There already appears to be a stand-off brewing between the president and the Republican-led Congress over immigration reform.
President Obama seems to indicate he’ll look into ways of going it alone (through executive order) on some form of immigration reform.
Yet, there’s already been threats among some Republicans that such actions could lead to open political warfare.
But Republicans should be warned that most Americans, and by an overwhelming majority (71 percent-25 percent), believe that undocumented immigrants should be given a way to stay in the country, provided certain requirements are met.
There’s also polling that indicates that Obama would be on safe ground to act on immigration reform if Congress fails to take up the issue (52 percent-44 percent).
That appears to be the REAL “will of the people.”
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net