There Is No Revolt Against Washington (Yet)
One of predominant talking point this week—most notably from Juan Williams, but heard all over cable news—revolved around the idea that we were experiencing some wide-ranging reaction to a broken Washington DC; a revolt against incumbency and politics in general.
Such revolutions typically live in the imagination. Most often, one party is being held accountable. And most often, change is gradual. It’s true that most voters tell pollsters they abhor the bickering in Washington. According to exit polls, more than third of those who voted for a Republican congressional candidate claimed to be dissatisfied or angry with GOP leaders in Congress. And a quarter of those who voted Democratic claimed they were dissatisfied with Obama. The reality is that only one party was punished. American voters didn’t oust incumbents, they ousted Democrats. If Pat Roberts (R, District of Columbia) could come back to win his race against a candidate whose entire rationale for running was to end partisanship, this was not about holding all DC elites accountable.
