'The Angry American'

Gordon Robinson, Contributor

In the wake of the midterm elections in the United States, hysterical hype abounds regarding an alleged message from the electorate to Obama to 'change course'.

No such message can be gleaned from any rational analysis of the campaigns, voting patterns or exit polls. Political parties will say anything for future votes. In particular, likely new House leader ,John Boehner saying the message to Obama is to "change course" doesn't make it so. Boehner is the least likely occupant of any electoral high ground as he's been a Congressman since 1991 and has starred in past Republican legislative agendas roundly rejected by the same electorate in 2006. What was the message then?

I've recently written that just as Eisenhower and Nixon were the 1950s' joint public face of 'The Ugly American', William Jefferson Clinton became the face of 'The New American' in the 1990s. Similarly, in 2010, Sarah Palin has become the public face of 'The Angry American'. The resounding midterm vote isn't for Obama to change course, it's a vote by an electorate, angry at domestic economic failure, giving the Republican Party one last chance to do something about it.

Job loss

Barack Obama came to the Oval office in the midst of a period in which the US was losing jobs at a rate of knots.

In 2008, 1.8 million jobs were lost (533,000 in November alone). The pace of job losses was the fastest in nearly 34 years. The household survey fell by 673,000 and the unemployment rate, at 6.7 per cent, was the highest in 15 years.

Unsurprisingly, it took three months for Obama to put on the brakes, so the plunge continued until he could get the show on the road. Although some semblance of stability has been restored, it'll be years before all those jobs are recovered. This was the only important issue (all else was peripheral) in the midterm elections.

Bob Marley warned ages ago:

"Them belly full, but we hungry;

A hungry mob is a angry mob.

A rain a fall, but de dutty tough;

A pot a cook, but de food no 'nuff."

If you analyse the exit-polling data and listen to ordinary Americans, this message isn't aimed at Democrats at all. It's a message to Republicans, "One last chance!"

"Cost of livin' gets so high.

Rich and poor they start to cry.

Now the weak must get strong.

They say, Oh, what a tribulation!"

Don't confuse Tea Party rhetoric with the people's will. The Tea Party has ridden a wave of anger from unemployed America and a fearful GO has foolishly clutched on to Tea Party coat-tails. But, outside of Texas, support for Tea Party solutions (even during extreme economic dysfunction) hasn't exceeded 37 per cent. That's less than the fleeting support received by America's last great white hope, Ross Perot who, in June 1992 (before temporarily withdrawing from the presidential race), led a national gallup poll at 39 per cent.

Incumbent president George H.W. Bush polled at 30 per cent before and after Perot left the race proving that America was then as now in a "plague on both your houses" phase due to a depressed economy. That economy didn't improve paving the way for Bill Clinton, affectionately known as America's first black president, to be elected.

"Ross Who?" you ask. Exactly.

Best victory speech

Tea Party leader Rand Paul emphasised he's heard this message. Marco Rubio, the new Senator from Florida, delivering the millennium's best victory speech, was crystal clear:

" ... we make a great mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party. What they are is a second chance. A second chance for the Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago."

Considering the circumstances of his path to victory, Rubio, a Tea Party darling, could've been excused for making a bitter, threatening, Palinesque acceptance speech featuring brickbats for Obama and damnation for Democrats. He'd been the victim of the most conniving, old-fashioned, political back-room wheeling and dealing whereby Democrats unsuccessfully pressured their own candidate to withdraw so his votes could go to former republican candidate Governor Charlie Crist, now an 'independent'. In the end, Rubio outpolled their combined votes.

Don't confuse Tea Party with GOP.

To erase Obama from national memory (tea-baggers don't want him changing course, they want him gone), tea-baggers will eliminate the GOP if necessary. The electorate just wants jobs. Its message to Obama: Stay focused on jobs; forget peripherals. Its message to Republicans:

Last chance!

The national message: One course. All aboard!

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com