In the late 1970s, movies about the experience of the Vietnam War and its aftermath were abundant — on both TV (
"Friendly Fire") and the big screen (
"Heroes," "The Deer Hunter," "Apocalypse Now").
And there was a movie called
"Coming Home" — which was nominated for eight Oscars and won three — that examined the trauma of the war on the home front.
To a degree, I suppose, you could say that about the others, too — although much of the trauma that was examined in the others (and the even more introspective films that followed in the 1980s) was the trauma of battle (a subject that has been examined in the context of every war in which America has been involved) and not so much the trauma that was experienced by those who didn't actually serve in Vietnam but, nevertheless, had to live with its consequences.
Anyway, there is no truly relevant link between that movie and what I want to write about today, except for the film's title, which popped into my mind as I read articles suggesting that the ever–volatile American electorate was experiencing a new seismic shift away from the Republicans, who heretofore had been regarded as heavy favorites in next month's midterms.
(Well, perhaps there
is an analogy to be made between a film about a war and the state of modern political conflict in America — but I'll leave that to others.)
Now, personally, I am deeply skeptical of
any suggestion by
anyone that the momentum is shifting — at least permanently.
Voters may be having second thoughts. This is something I have heard about since taking political science courses in college, where I became acquainted with what is called the
"left at the altar" syndrome.
But that has been more frequently observed in presidential politics. Most recently, I recall hearing distraught Republicans insisting, right up to Election Day, that
the tide was turning in 2008 — which, of course, it was not.
Some voters may have hesitated in the final weeks and asked themselves if they really wanted to change parties in the presidency, but few, if any, appear to have changed their votes as a result. The political pendulum continued to lurch leftward.
There have been relatively few moments in the history of mankind — let alone the comparably brief history of
this nation — that had the power to move great numbers of people to the opposite side on even a
temporary basis. Permanent shifts are more uncommon.
Yet it seems that every man who has won a presidential election has believed that he has been given a mandate to govern in a certain way, that
his election was transformational.
Seldom, if ever, has he been willing to entertain the notion that the voters simply rejected the other guy — or, in his absence, as was the case in 2008, his party.
I suppose those who seek the presidency and those who invest much of themselves in electing these individuals don't want to think that anything that demands that much personal sacrifice can be lost in a seemingly casual manner. Perhaps that undermines them and their motivations.
The true believers, it seems to me, want to believe the voters have made the same kind of commitment that they have, and they simply won't believe it is possible to lose their support until it happens.
At this stage of a losing campaign, self–doubt starts to creep in. And then those on the losing side will seek the reasons why the political equivalent of a
"perfect storm" occurred. Sometimes they start wondering before the storm strikes.
Most of the time, the evidence was all around them all along. They didn't see it — or they didn't want to see it.
In recent months, I have heard bewildered Democrats asking themselves what could possibly have gone wrong. How could the once hugely popular Barack Obama and his party have fallen so far from grace?
I've heard some people suggest that Obama was guilty of overreaching, of trying to do too much at once. And there may be an element of that in the voters' criticism. I believe that perception has fueled — at least, in part — the resistance embodied in the Tea Party movement.
Others have said that, when they went to the polls two years ago, they simply wanted the next president, whoever that turned out to be, to right the economy and start bringing unemployment down. The Democrats' general avoidance of the issue has alarmed them, frightened them, angered them.
For these and other reasons, the American voters appear to be poised to hand one or both chambers of Congress over to the Republicans. That's pretty bewildering for some folks. I've heard Democrats ask,
"How can they vote for the party that drove the economy into a ditch in the first place?"That seems perplexing on the surface, but the answer really is simple and, in its own way, logical.
In a two–party system, when voters are angry or frustrated or scared, their only recourse is to vote against the party in power. In 2010, many voters are angry and/or frustrated and/or scared, and many may rationalize that the Republicans have learned from four years of being in the minority after a dozen years of being in the majority.
Lately, both parties have taken encouragement from
Gallup's latest generic congressional ballot.
- Democrats eager to believe that the voters are "coming home" after considering their alternatives embrace Gallup's finding that, among registered voters, the race is neck and neck.
- But Republicans enjoy a large advantage among likely voters, the ones whose voting histories indicate that they are likely to participate in the midterm elections. Not everyone does. And it has been observed frequently that the very groups that propelled Obama to the presidency and Democrats to their congressional margins two years ago — minorities, the young — do not have voting histories that make them likely voters.
Decisions are made by those who show up.
The enthusiasm factor makes all the difference sometimes. In 1994, there were many House — and even Senate — races that were decided by narrow margins.
But, in a democracy, a one–vote margin is as good as a million. There may be recounts, but, eventually, a winner will be declared.
In 1992, the Democrats won nearly identical congressional majorities to the ones Democrats enjoyed after the 2008 election. And, when the dust settled in 1994, the Republicans had seized both houses of Congress.
Much of what contributed to the Democrats' decline stemmed from two things — their failure to adequately address the economic problems that lingered after Bill Clinton took office and their ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of health care reform.
I, for one, have always found it to be ironic that Obama chose to center his presidency around the issue of health care reform — as if he was defying history to repeat itself. And you should never do that.
(It reminds me of an old Bill Cosby line from an album I listened to when I was a kid.
(
"Never say that things can't get any worse," Cosby told his listeners.
"Because that's when the gremlins say, 'Worse!' ")
Don't challenge history. History
always wins that one.
Yes, Obama
did mention health care on the 2008 campaign trail — but it wasn't the initial focus of his candidacy (ending the war in Iraq was) and it wasn't the focus of his campaign after the American economy imploded. I recall it mostly being mentioned in an afterthought kind of way.
But, for whatever reason, Obama spent his political capital in pursuit of the passage of a contentious health care reform bill instead of seeking a truly bipartisan effort to stop the bleeding of jobs from the national economy.
Perhaps it was the arrogance of power that made Obama believe he could follow his own path in the presidency — and, in spite of themselves, the voters would see the wisdom of his ways.
Are the voters
"coming home" in 2010? I don't think so.
But, if the Republicans
do capture Congress this year, that triumph should come with a disclaimer —
Political power evaporates quickly.And Obama needs to study up on Bill Clinton's strategy for dealing with a Republican Congress in 1995. He was re–elected two years later.
And I'm getting the feeling that both parties need to be concerned about this Tea Party movement. There may not be many of the so–called Tea Partiers who win
this time — but this movement seems to stem mostly from the sense that the folks in office — Republicans
and Democrats — just don't listen to the people anymore.
So I would advise the folks in the next Congress to be sensitive to the voters' wishes long after November.
If they aren't, they're apt to discover this Tea Party movement has legs.
