Even before Tuesday’s midterm elections, a lot of adjectives were used to
describe American voters today: frustrated, disappointed, angry, betrayed.
Looking at the results, I suggest there are two adjectives missing: fickle and
dumb.
Voters are fickle, indeed. Yes, they want change. But it seems they want change
simply for the sake of change.
This is, after all, the third “change election” in a row: putting Democrats in
charge of the House in 2006; electing a Democratic president in 2008; and now
putting Republicans back in charge of the House in 2010. Which is a recipe for
getting nothing done.
Americans treat elections the way couch potatoes treat television. Tired of
watching this show? Hit the clicker. Five minutes later, bored again? Hit the
clicker. How else to explain the fact that millions of Americans elected Barack
Obama in 2008 to lead this country in a new direction — and then decided, 20
months later, to go back where we came from?
How else to explain it, except to point out that Americans are also dumb. If we
really want to get something done, we can’t change teams every two years. If we
really want any president to move this country forward, we’ve got to give him
more than two years to get things done — before deciding to go backward.
It makes you wonder whether it’s even possible to govern this country today.
And it’s not. As long as voters remain so fickle and so dumb.
Visit Mr. Press’s website at billpressshow.com.