This post is going to be particularly short. I'm very much sick of the media trying to make up various narratives about the reason behind Obama's sliding approval rating and the likelihood of a Democratic loss of Congress. Generally, the artificial story seems to revolve around voters either being dissatisfied with (1) the "high spending and deficits" of the Obama Administration, or (2) unemployment remaining at 9-10% despite recovery efforts.
Question for Fox/MSNBC/CNN: isn't it a bit insulting to assume that unemployment IN GENERAL is enough to simply throw an entire government-in-power out the door? Surely the American voting population deserves a bit more credit than that. The unemployment rate isn't at 53%, guys, so the 48% approval rating can't exactly be explained away as "people who don't have jobs disapprove", and "deficit spending"? We've deficit spent for half a century, and NOW people make it the number-one issue? Come on.
While democratic voting can be a fickle beast, it also demonstrates larger trends than mere issues and opinions--I think the sliding approval for Democrats is systemic of a larger American dissatisfaction with the US government in general, and although the party-in-power will always stand more to lose under such circumstances, it can hardly be called a victory for Republicans. The Tea Party movement, despite its faults, is the first real symptom that the American patience for the see-sawing of parties without any real progress in policy success is wearing thin. The gains Republicans make this coming November will be enormous relative to their current minority in Congress, and they will get a majority. But watch the margins. The fact is, the seesaw will tip some in favor of the GOP, but the overall attitude of American voters isn't "get me a job" or "fix the budget", it's "do something good for the country, damnit!" The anger isn't exclusive to conservatives, just as it wasn't exclusive to liberals in 06 and 08. It's time to drop the act, media: stop pretending like it's the same-old change of the guard and start reporting what Americans are really riled about.
