Elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.
The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short, so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism.
Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration.
And if Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level.
In
California, the G.O.P. has essentially
shrunk down to a rump party with no interest
in actually governing — but that rump
remains big enough to prevent anyone else
from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis.
If this happens to America as a whole, as it
all too easily could, the country could
become effectively ungovernable in the midst
of an ongoing economic disaster.
Something unprecedented is happening here
— and it’s very bad for America.