The Problems With Last Night's Election Results

Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos has this interesting analysis of last night's election results: The Democratic base collapsed.

The risk is that other experts will explain the defeat of the Democrats who ran for governor in NJ and Virginia with their unpopularity or the fact that they ran bad campaigns. I don't buy that explanation, because while there are some bad Democrats, and god knows there are many, the alternative--Republicans--is even worse. The real problem is Democrats who do not stand up for the values they were elected for, as Markos explains in his post.

Another problem is that in time of economic crises a majority of electors still buys the Republican rhetoric that the solution to everyone's problems lies in lower taxes (which benefit middle- and lower-class Americans only marginally) and fewer regulations (which never benefit anyone other than corporations or the very wealthy), in spite of all contrary evidence, which by now abounds. These solutions have been tried over and over again by Republicans over the last 30 years and--while they may bring a small dose of temporary relief--they wreak havoc and lead to disaster for average Americans in the long run. It is hard to believe that the American people are so stupid that they keep buying the Republican "free-market" mantra, but the evidence is under eyes. We look away at our peril.