Republican Wisconsin Governor Walker won a recall election tonight. The vote was not even close. Pundits will spend the next few days trying to explain why.
Pundits on MSNBC are attempting to explain the loss was due to big money. They are wrong.
Pundits on Fox News are attempting to explain the loss was due to the economic turnaround in Wisconsin, claiming an increase in jobs and lower debt. They are wrong.
The loss tonight was no surprise if we consider only one concept - anger. People are angry.
The Wisconsin vote tally represents the growing anger of an electorate which believes democrats waste taxpayer money. The majority of voters will no longer vote for policies they believe will benefit their neighbor because they believe their neighbor has abused these policies.
For example, a republican friend of mine explained that while he was hiking in the woods, he came across another hiker. They started talking. The person explained they were unemployed, collecting unemployment, and so they were just hiking the mountains rather than looking for a job.
Ironically, as my republican friend was becoming more agitated just telling the story - he did not stop once to consider that he was also hiking in the mountains. He was on vacation - a vacation he believed he earned but his neighbors will insist he stole because his paycheck is from the taxpayers (after all, he's a government worker).
Another example are the students in my high school who plan to simply live off of welfare. They are quick to state that they won't even bother learning because the government will take care of them.
A third example comes from the generation of couch potatoes, busily playing video games rather than working. These 20-something males sit in their parent's bedrooms and just suck up oxygen. They probably don't even know there was a recall election tonight.
Valid or not - voters are bristling over these types of ideas. In fact, the details do not matter because the generalities of these stories catch fire.
More important, we all can think of people like the hiker, like the student, and like the 20-something lazy male.
In our present mindset, people are very quick to feel ill about their neighbor when they feel bad about their own situation. And we collectively do feel rotten.
In blunt terms, Walker won because we believe we are working hard while our neighbor is partying, living off taxpayer money, and not contributing to society.
Should this anger concern Mr. Obama?
My prediction is that President Obama will lose in November for this very same reason. People are angry. They are upset that their neighbor is getting government handouts. It doesn't matter that they also get handouts. The fact is that they don't want their neighbors to get them.
Yes. Mr. Obama will lose in November because of anger.
