Politics Isn't Bliss

Politics is a business. And like any other business, it operates year-round. Elections happen in terms/cycles, but campaigning is a constant process. As soon as a candidate wins an election, he/she is already campaigning for the next. Last year we saw the culmination of a record, 2-year presidential campaign between Senators Obama and McCain, with the inauguration of the nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama. It was a historic campaign and an even more historic election.

At the time of the election, there was an energy that swept the nation. There was the call for change that started with the Obama campaign and spread like wildfire. The excitement extended to other nations. This was the first time in my history that I’d seen so many other nations with genuine interest in an American election. Not only were other nations watching, but they wanted to participate as well. President Obama was elected because people agreed that we needed change. The past 8 years had put us in the most unenviable financial situation and a crisis that had a ripple effect around the world. When Obama was elected, he said that it wouldn’t be easy as there was so much work to be done.

Now, just a year later, people are stirring. Pollsters, pundits, and the press have voters stirred up. We have just seen three major elections that went to the Republicans: The governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey and the Senate election for Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts. Of course political pundits and observers viewed this as a backlash against the Obama administration and have said that polls indicate that Americans don’t like the direction of the country.

I don’t think that these elections are true indicators of any major shift in the country. Americans are fickle and we are a fast-food nation. Regardless of the fact that this mess was built up over the years, many people are so out of touch with reality that they think that someone could come in and fix every problem in one year. Republicans were in office for the last 8 years. It’s being called the year of Independents, but are these voters going to flip-flop every time something doesn’t go their way? The biggest problem is that most of these people voting don’t understand how politics works. If the election in Massachusetts was a reaction to the focus on healthcare, then it certainly can’t be seen as an indication of the direction of the nation. Massachusetts doesn’t like the healthcare bill because they don’t need it. According to Wikipedia, The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law was enacted in 2006. It requires nearly every resident of Massachusetts to obtain coverage. Through the law, Massachusetts provides free health care for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL), and partially subsidized health care for those earning up to 300% of the FPL, depending on an income-based sliding scale. The law is credited with covering an additional 439,000 Massachusetts residents as of April 1, 2008.

We all know that President Obama inherited numerous problems/issues when he entered office and they all need attention. The Democrats would benefit from a more united, cohesive appearance and a focus on better communication with Americans. Voters want to support Obama, but they are easily swayed and distracted to focus on non-issues. I think that we will see another shift once voters have a sense of what is going on and how long it will take to fix the issues.

-Daphane is a blogger for The Sorbate. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.