Just not in the way Democrats would probably like you to believe.
Democratic politicians and pundits have made a lot of noise this year about “income inequality” and “stagnating wages” and “economic insecurity.” Their solutions are usually some form of government intervention, greater regulation, or a more extensive welfare state. But those aren’t the things that people voted for this week.
If voters wanted bigger and more intrusive government, more regulation, and more welfare, they should have voted for Republicans in a landslide. It was a Republican Congress that put the regulatory nightmare of Sarbanes-Oxley in place, that outlawed online wagering, and that created the catastrophically expensive Medicare prescription drug benefit. The Republican Congress also presided over a massive increase in overall government spending.
Voters may hate the war in Iraq. They may hate corruption. But I think they also hate the way the party that historically talks about smaller government and fiscal responsibility has gone on a regulating-and-spending binge.
According to a poll conducted by Basswood Research in 15 key battleground congressional districts, 39% of voters labeled the Republicans “The Party of Big Government” — only 28% gave that label to the Democrats. In those districts, Republican candidates got slaughtered on Tuesday.
As I’ve been saying for a while, Democrats didn’t win this last election because of their policies or ideas (though the loony left is predictably howling “MANDATE!") but rather because the Republicans didn’t adhere to the policies and ideas they campaigned on.
The Democrats may feel triumphant now, but as time wears on (and if Republicans can convince Americans that they’ve returned to those conservative values) this may become something of a bitter pill for them to swallow.