WaPo: 60% is no mandate
By Ken Falkenstein | Saturday, November 12th, 2011 | PoliticsIn this week’s legislative elections, Virginia Republicans won 60% of the popular vote, gained 7 seats in the House of Delegates to give them an historic 2/3 supermajority in that chamber, and gained 2 seats in the Senate to gain the majority in that chamber. The only reason that the Republicans did not gain more seats in the Senate was the hyperpartisan redistricting done by the Democrats who currently control that chamber.
But to the leftist Washington Post, the Republicans did not win a mandate to do anything with their majorities. To the leftist “news” media, mandates are only earned when Democrats win elections.
The question now is whether the Republicans will listen to the WaPo or to the 60% of Virginia voters who elected them.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently the Vice President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads and practices as a civil litigation attorney with the law firm of Poole Mahoney PC in Virginia Beach. His concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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18 Responses to "WaPo: 60% is no mandate"
60%? Obviously more people voted GOP than read the Post.
No Ken,
The editorial said:
“They wasted no time in vowing to enact legislation on immigration, gun control, abortion and other combustible social issues — even though few Republican candidates emphasized those issues on the campaign trail. Our view is that pursuing a radical social agenda would misread the wafer-thin mandate they’ve been handed. It could also sow seeds of electoral setbacks.”
And they are 100% correct.
We are the 60%
“Our view is that pursuing a radical social agenda would misread the wafer-thin mandate they’ve been handed. It could also sow seeds of electoral setbacks”
Did WaPo say the same thing about Obama and the Dems? No but they would have been 100% correct if they had. They would rather be leftists than right (no pun intended).
immigration a social issue? isnt’ immigration a fiscal issue? or a national security issue? or just a plain old law & order issue?
I just hope the Republicans are quick to ram their radical agenda down the throats of the moderate middle. Make the middle feel the force of God, gay, guns, and women’s wombs.
Send forth the warriors of Regent, Liberty, and Patrick Henry.
I want pics of our governor looking up and slightly over us all with his soft locks blowing in the breeze as he signs the mind of Corey Stewart into law.
@Susan you sound a lot like an idiot named Brian Moran.
I’m sorry, Garrett, don’t you like the Republican agenda? If so, then why is my comment idiocy? Republicans most definitely have a mandate and if they are what they say they are, then they will carry forth immediately. I was merely commenting on the powerful force preparing to sweep across the state of Virginia. Isn’t this what the topic at hand is about? I am agreeing with Ken. I’ll state it again. Republicans do indeed have a mandate to do with us as they see fit.
Susan,
I will describe your post as being representative of the left wing perspective and a breath of fresh air on this site. I do not always agree with left wing extremists, I more often then not side with them when forced to balance the extremist voices.
You did a good job of illuminating what we are in for in Virginia government due to the election. The pendulum swings and if Republicans get carried away, the swing back will be that much sooner and that much more forceful.
David, I appreciate your comment on my behalf. And if you are as you say, it will be voters like you who will reverse the pendulum hopefully before too much damage is done to the Commonwealth. The residual damage of “No car tax” is still working its way through Virginia’s budget and that was over a decade ago.
Both valentinus and Susan are on the right track. No, the Post editorial board (which has to be differentiated from the Post newsroom), did not say the same thing about Obama and the Dems in 2008. The Dems took their victory at the polls and concluded that it was a mandate to create the largest new entitlement program in the history of the republic while the economy was tanking deeper by the month. 2010 was their just desserts. Susan point is also correct, although her sarcasm might be lost on some here.
val, in another thread you accused me, as a moderate Independent, of wanting both parties to cater to my centrist views while committing to neither party. That is an understatement. I demand that both parties cater to my centrist views or I will vote for the other guys. As for committing to one party or another, hey, this is politics not religion. And that is the way the game is played, not just in Virginia, but across the country as a whole. When the Republicans ran Gilmore for the Senate, the Independents (sick of the No Car Tax gimmick) swung to the left and elected Warner. When the Democrats ran Deeds (or T-Mac, or Little Moran), the Independents swung to Governor Bob. You cannot win elections (or govern) from the extreme left or right. When you campaign from the far right, you will lose the election. When the Democrats try to govern from the far left, they will lose power. Arguing otherwise is like arguing with gravity.
Perhaps the current stagflation caused 60 percent of the voters not to trust democrats. Considering that “inside the beltway politicians” seem to be almost trying to destroy the economy, 2012 may not be a banner year for democrats.
Wonder where that radioactive iodine in Europe is coming from ???
Oldgeezer implies what most centrist’s reject; that is, the recovery and period of slow growth that is upon us now is the inevitable result of the boom and bust mentality brought to us by the Bush administration and by a private sector run amok as no one was watching. I have to commend republicans for their war on reason and understanding, as they have convinced most people it was government’s fault.
But of course, most thinking adults know differently. The entire Wall Street debacle was the lack of regulation and control. The mortgage meltdown was caused by private sector greed and excess, and involved as well millions of americans who had faith in Wall Street and let that faith lead them astray.
They will pay for decades; Wall Street tycoons have recovered quite nicely with friends like Eric Cantor to protect their interests. But we have recovered, we are restoring faith and confidence in government institutions. Of course, Congress refuses to participate, and americans will hold them accountable in 2012.
Much more likely we are in the middle of a Depression rather then a slow growth recovery.
Liu Tian of the Capitalist Chinese Communist Party says
“For the United States, it should put its house in order before chiding others. Since the onset of U.S. subprime crisis in 2007, it was the country’s domestic economic problems that triggered a disastrous financial crisis that swept the world. Excessive spending for many years has added up debts. Meanwhile, traditional strong industries such as finance and auto were devastated by the crisis, pushing up unemployment. In face of such serious domestic problems which probably could trigger a new global economic tsunami, many U.S. politicians seemed only to care about how many votes they could get, without having a single thought about what kind of the global responsibilities the country should take. Thus it should come as no surprise that the angry “Occupy Wall Street” protesters are calling for an end to the political tricks in Washington.”
Forty percent……That might be a victory in Greece or Italy, but in Virginia that is not good. Must be a reason or two or three.
Mike,
Refresh my memory: what legislation to rein in Wall Street did Chis Dodd and Barney Fwank push thru Congress in 2007 when they chaired the banking committees? You remember Chris, don’t you? The guy who got the “preferred mortgage” from Countrywide while they were swindling the banks with liar loan-based derivatives. And Barney Fwank, of course, was the fearless leader of the Democrats, both in the minority and the majority, who insisted that there was no problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that warranted tightening of leading regulations. Roll the film:
You can try to blame the mortgage/Wall Street mess on Dodd Frank but of course that is ridiculous on its face. President Bush’s decisions on deregulation, on fighting tow wars on a credit card, tax cuts, and new Medicare benefits without paying for them were the cause of our decline in the period of irrational exhuberance. Now, for the republican mantra of cut taxes and let the private sector run mad, the cause of the Great Recession must be pinned on other forces, any other forces, in order for the sleight of hand to work. Frankly, it has worked to some degree, but now, more and more americans are listening to reason; cut spending, reform the tax code, modify entitlements, raise revenue. That is what has to be done, americans know it, and it is the republicans in Congress that won’t do it. They will bear ultimate responsibility in November, 2012.
Stop it, Mike. You’re killing me. Weren’t you here in the run-up to the 2010 elections predicting that the Republicans would be swept from Congress for trying to “obstruct” ObamaCare?
I’ll bet that the BD guys could find that in their archives if they took you seriously.
You don’t have to look in the BD archives… Mike continuously repeats or cuts and pastes from his own archives.
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