The message that the Midterm turnout is sending

By Christopher Waldeck on November 24, 2014

Not only did the GOP absolutely decimate the Democrats during this past midterm election, but they also did it by managing to encourage more of their voters to come out and support their candidates. This is something that as a volunteer I found to be sorely lacking on the Mitt Romney campaign as the Republican base really didn’t seem to show up as much as they should’ve. This time the turnout was so low that one has to wonder whether the loss was due to poor American participation or if the parties simply didn’t rally their bases well enough. Well the Republicans did, because their base showed up and voted.

Regardless, this was one of the lowest turnouts in American history. To be exact, it was the lowest voter turnout in 72 years. and it truly is embarrassing that people hate the legislative system so much that they are literally not participating and voting. Florida had the 15th highest turnout and the overall national turnout was a paltry 36.3%. The lowest turnout was in Indiana with a mere 22%. It really did matter how many people each party to energize to vote. This is where the evidence is the clearest that Republicans did a better job of energizing their constituents to show up and vote than the Democrats did.

While midterms tend to be lower in the election period, its sad to see voters so dismayed by the outlook and by the negative political malarkey that they refuse to participate and exercise one of their most important American freedoms. While mud was thrown by the Democrats trying to claim voter suppression, its clear that people revile the way our government is acting and didn’t show up to exercise their basic fundamental freedom. Who can blame them? Almost nothing has gotten done due to partisan politics and a very poorly run government that can’t seem to make adequate decisions on any issues like immigration, reform on social programs or just balancing the budget in general.

This election shows that there is an urgent need to make government more efficient and for those elected to work together to solve a problem rather then just blaming each other and refusing to pass legislation simply because it wouldn’t benefit the power game of the party. This partisanship and vicious rhetorical warfare has offended so many Americans that they are too embarrassed to exercise their natural rights because they no longer see the government as serving their interest.

 

I hope in the next two years that the republican controlled congress doesn’t just let the president become a lame duck and continue to get nothing done because of party divide. They need to send a message that they are willing to work together with the president and take some hits while also getting in a few punches when it comes to negotiating legislation that at least in some ways serves the interest of the President and Congress politically. The worst thing that the congress can do is make this president a lame duck and fail to make any improvements themselves.

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