The morning after a major election and as most political junkies do, I think about what happened, what worked, what did not work, etc.
There are really a few key issues that to me, where very glaring:
- Tea Party Movement
- Obamacare
- Non Presidential Election year
1. The Tea Party Movement – I don’t even know where to really begin with this one, but here goes. These are people that, who I believe that for the most part were part of the Republican party, but really did not see the established party doing enough. And they certainly were not party of the Democratic party, so they started their own movement. The problem here is simple, the Tea Party is causing the Republican party from not only gaining traction, but actually causing potential Republican winning elections. Case in point, the Republicans did not really go out full force to support the candidate because he was more aligned with the Tea Party. Until the Tea Party and the Republicans can come together, this is going to be a long standing issue.
2. Obamacare – With all of the issues of people signing up and more importantly, the realization that the cost of premiums are rising, in most cases and a lot of people are being dropped by their insurance companies, people are upset. In the Virginia Governor’s race, it wasn’t until the final days that this message was really put forth and it seemed to have hit home with a lot of voters, but it was a little too late. But, I do think that if the Republicans can back off the negative ads and rhetoric, sit back and see how it plays out, then if it is still a issue next year, then really use it as a campaign issue and use it hard.
3. Non Presidential Election year – People do not care. Look at the numbers, lower turnouts in off year elections. I don’t forsee this really ever changing either.
So, it comes down to this for my election day recap – the Republicans have to change their strategy from the top down and they have to work with the Tea Party movement or else there is a good chance that the Republicans will be facing many more years of embarrassing defeats. And until many of the issues around Obamacare are worked out, we really do not know how that will play out.
Campaigns are already starting to take shape for the next elections, so expect to see and hear more from politicians in the coming months.