Deanna TaylorFive Myths About the Midterm Elections
Did the bloggers matter in the end? Are the Dems more conservative? Did Republicans lose on the war? TIME separates fact from fiction:
MYTH: Joe Lieberman’s victory proves the netroots don’t matter.
REALITY: The netroots had some key victories.
MYTH: Democrats won because they carefully recruited more conservative candidates.
REALITY: Democrats won because their candidates were conservative about their message.
MYTH: The losses Republicans sufferend this election were no different than what you usually see in a President’s sixth year in office.
REALITY: Redistricting minimized what might have been a truly historic shellacking.
MYTH: The election was all about the war.
REALITY: It’s the dishonesty, stupid.
MYTH: Republicans lost their base.
REALITY: The base turned out, they just got beat.
November 19th, 2006 at 11:49 am
If the Democrats lose sight of the fact that this election was all about the Iraq war (despite some exit polls that seemed to put corruption first), we’re in trouble. The Bush administration is going to try rope in enough Dems (as they did in October 2002) to get renewed bipartisan support for the war we just voted to stop.
November 19th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
I am part of the base, and I turned out…it’s just that I didn’t vote for them, due to what I perceive as little difference between them and the Dems regarding constraining government to its proper role.
I didn’t vote for Democrats either. The Constitutional Party is coming of age as a much better alternative.