re:  Why the Democrats were hammered

In his analysis of what President Obama called a "shellacking" in the midterm elections, Ross K. Baker decides that the Democrats lost not because voters didn't like the proposals they were enacting, but instead it was simply that they didn't understand what great things those politicians were providing them — the "Democratic blunder" lay in "talking over the heads of the American people".  Translation:  the voters were too ignorant to realize what great work the politicians were doing on their behalf.  Never mind that the President gave over 200 speeches on health care, or that Vice President Biden and President Obama both spent the "summer of recovery" touting the supposed success of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the economic "stimulus" plan.

I have a different theory.  Voters saw a health care plan that was unnecessarily complicated, inordinately expensive, and, despite claims to the contrary, did nothing to reduce health care costs or improve consumer choice.  Voters saw unemployment rising to above 10% following enactment of a $787 billion "stimulus" plan that was supposedly necessary to avoid unemployment reaching 8%.  They saw proposed tax increases on their employer — leaving less money for hiring new workers, investing in research and equipment, or for increasing their own salaries and benefits.  And voters saw a government that opened a wellspring of profligate spending when they themselves were having to tighten family budgets.  In the light of these excesses, voters decided it was time for new leadership.

The lesson of the 2010 election is not that those in our government need to speak more simplistically, it's that they need to perform more competently.

Sincerely,
Dave Smith
Houston, TX