Here’s an interesting take on the results of last week’s midterm elections, putting them in the context of the past three decades: American voters just keep changing their minds.
David Von Drehle, a columnist at The Washington Post, found what may be the most interesting conundrum of the midterm results — in Kansas, if you can believe that.
“The voters reelected Gov. Laura Kelly, a moderate Democrat with a soothing demeanor,” he wrote. “Kelly is the sort of governor you want if you prefer not to give much thought to your governor: knowledgeable, practical, low-key.”
On the very same ballot, Kansas voters elected a Republican, Kris Kobach, as attorney general. “Kobach is an original gangsta of MAGA Republicanism,” Von Drehle observed. “A perpetual candidate, Kobach distilled his platform this time to just three words: ‘Sue Joe Biden.’”
Von Drehle described the winners as two candidates who go together “like a Christmas cardigan and a bag of broken glass. I can see why people might prefer one or the other, but I’m surprised to see both in the same shopping cart.”
That rings true. A majority of Kansas voters supported a practical, low-key Democratic governor for a second term. Yet they also awarded high office to the Republican former secretary of state who, in addition to unproven claims of rampant voter fraud in American elections and a strong anti-immigration stand, lost to Kelly in the 2018 governor’s general election.
Viewed with a wider lens, a majority of American voters did somewhat the same thing last week, but a little differently. In spite of the severe economic conditions since President Biden took office, voters chose not to punish his party too severely. Anybody who predicted Democrats would retain control of the Senate needs to be a professional gambler, because they won a bet on a huge underdog.
Von Drehle said the Kansas results, along with the national numbers, are just the latest example in a trend that’s been going on since the 1990s: “They are the 50-50 years; the split-blanket years; the divided government years. Presidential candidates struggle for majorities, and often win with less. Landslides are a thing of the past. Houses of Congress flip and flop from one slippery grip to the other.”
He suspects this back-and-forth gridlock is the message voters are sending elected officials — that once parties get hold of power, they tend to go too far, and it’s the voters’ job to rein them in.
In Congress, Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, but it will be by a slim margin, even smaller than the one Democrats had for the past two years. It’s a win for the GOP, but not the win it expected.
Other factors, including Donald Trump and the Supreme Court’s Dobbs abortion ruling, probably played a role in this year’s elections. But the larger thesis still stands. Republicans and Democrats trade power regularly in Washington, and the voters are responsible.
