America went to the polls last night and delivered a message that requires neither a political science degree nor a panel of twelve people on CNN: Enough of this s**t. Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress. Republicans lost Senate races in places their party had come to treat as reserved parking. The counting continues, but the direction of the verdict is clear.
Now comes the dangerous part: the winners explaining that America has enthusiastically endorsed everything they have ever wanted to do. Easy there. When somebody jumps out of a burning building into your arms, you have not necessarily secured a marriage proposal.
My reading of this election is that America voted against. Against a long, overlapping, occasionally contradictory list of things. Voters don’t have to agree on the solution to agree that the people currently in charge deserve a performance review conducted with a shovel.
Start with endless war. Some voters opposed the Iran war from the beginning. Others may have supported hitting Iran and expected the administration to finish the job. Those positions are different, but both can produce disgust with a conflict that keeps consuming money, attention and patience. The broader political warning, however, is unmistakable. Starting a war does not buy you unlimited public consent to continue it. “Finish the job” needs a definition of finished. Otherwise, it’s a subscription service with casualties.
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