Americans aren't buying the GOP agenda(Katrina Vanden Heuvel)

[Seedersandleechers]

In the wake of the election, conservatives are full of advice for President Obama. The "unmistakable message" of the election, says presumptive House Speaker John Boehner, is "change course," and that begins by cutting spending and lowering taxes. The election, writes a dyspeptic George F. Will, was "nationwide recoil against Barack Obama's idea of unlimited government." A rational and alarmed American majority, says Will, believed that "government commands and controls" were "superseding and suffocating the creativity of a market society's spontaneous order."

Were voters really unleashing their hidden Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand?

It's true that conservatives, aroused in part by the Tea Party and its opposition to Obama, came out in large numbers - making up more than 40 percent of the electorate last week. The Obama base, probably exhausted - as Velma Hall famously told the president in an October town hall meeting, "of defending you, defending your administration" - turned out in smaller numbers.

But the whiter, older, more conservative electorate last Tuesday remained skeptical of the conservative agenda. On spending, these voters were of mixed minds. Asked in exit polls what the first priority of Congress should be, as many said spending to create jobs (37 percent) as said reducing the deficit (39 percent). On taxes, the conservative position was taken by a distinct minority of Tuesday's voters, with 39 percent saying Congress should extend the Bush tax cuts to all, while more than half the voters supported extending them only to those with incomes under $250,000 (37 percent) or not extending them all (15 percent).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110903639.html

[mmonk]

1. Too late.

[NotThisTime]

2. They already bought it

[MattyGroves]

3. She can believe whatever she wants

The Republicans were pretty clear on what they would do if they took control and that included slashing entitlement programs. If the voters didn't research the full platform and voted on one or two issues then that's pretty much their fault if they get screwed down the road.

Outside of deciding to spend a majority of their time conducting investigations I don't know how the Repubs can be accused of doing a "bait and switch" on the voters if they follow through on the campaigns.

[BeFree]

8. heh

Yeah, the republicans always are truthful and straight up.

:sarcasm:

I see you use the word 'entitlements' to explain expenditures of the government.
I wonder, do you feel the DoD is entitled to ever increasing sums?

[BlueCheese]

11. Entitlements is a well-accepted term.

Certain programs are called entitlements because people are entitled to them by law--i.e. Congress can't simply lop off the spending without changing the underlying law.

[diane in sf]

9. Most Republican voters are low information, that's why they vote like that. They are

swayed by manipulated emotions--not by facts.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. How soon

before buyer's remorse (or non-voting remorse) sets in? :shrug:

[Seedersandleechers]

5. Not soon enough if ever

would be my guess. The dumbing down of Americans is in full throttle.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Next thing you know

Groups will be opening museums that preach creationism and showcase biblical characters and dinosaurs co-existing.

Oh, wait.................:banghead:

[gratuitous]

7. Correct, but irrelevant

Because the Republicans will do what they always do: Read their election however they want, and bull ahead with the most regressive, repressive and reactionary items on their menu, rewarding their affluent benefactors and punishing everyone else. Boehner set the tone early, as the Republicans will harp on "the will of the people" as their justification for everything they do (and that elusive "will of the people" was nowhere in evidence of Republican rhetoric prior to this when they were opposing everything, but that's different, and by mutual agreement, the popular media will not remember past Republican truculence).

While pundits and people alike say, "That's not what they were elected to do," the GOP won't care, simply run ahead with their own agenda. Any correlation between their actions now that they're running the House and their ersatz populist promises to get there will be the merest coincidence. For those who were paying very close attention, the true agenda was always there but rarely emphasized.

[treestar]

10. They did buy it, and can't return it for two years