According to Christopher Caldwell, our palpable relief at the Republican's midterm election beating is mostly to do with our satisfaction with the receding authority of President Bush. Great leaders, he says, listen to their constituents and then mirror back their interests. Bush, on the other hand, reflects a cocky, brash, "I don't do nuance" belief. As we collectively enjoyed this attitude when he took office, "U-S-A...U-S-A," we share the shame as it has led us into an Iraqi quagmire, a massive budget deficit, and several major ethical scandals. The haste to remove this mirror, says Caldwell, is why even Republicans have a sense of relief after the midterms. "The losers seem to believe they got what was coming to them."
P.S. Although I found the piece intellectually intriguing, Caldwell's argument that voters don't understand the Democratic agenda because one-third have never heard of Harry Reid is completely asinine. Agenda != Harry Reid
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