Congress: Why Democrats are running scared

last updated 8 January 2015

“This is a miserable time to be a Democratic politician,” said The Economist in an editorial. With the economy struggling and unemployment stuck at 9.5 percent, “the country is in the sort of unhappy and scratchy mood that voters in midterms habitually take out on the president’s party.” In an apparent sign of resignation, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week that “there are enough seats in play” that Republicans “could gain control” of the House of Representatives by taking 39 or more seats in November’s midterm elections. With Obama’s approval rating sinking into the 40s, and a large majority of voters dissatisfied with the country’s direction, many objective political analysts agree. Even Democratic control of the Senate—where Republicans need 10 seats to gain a majority—is not secure. With a “thumping” assured in November, the only question is: How bad will it be?

It will be a beating Democrats “are not likely to forget soon,” said Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal. The backlash to Obama’s big-government policies has created a major “intensity gap.” Gallup reports that 45 percent of Republican voters are “very enthusiastic” about voting this year, while only 24 percent of Democratic voters are. If dispirited Democrats stay home, it’ll be a rout. And if it is, credit the GOP’s “gridlock strategy,” said E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. By blocking and delaying the White House’s agenda whenever possible, and sabotaging Obama’s promise of bipartisanship, the GOP erased the glow left over from his historic election, and made Washington look petty, mean, and disconnected from real people’s problems. Who gets punished? The party in power.

Only one thing can save Democrats now, said Noam Scheiber in The New Republic Online—and that’s Republicans. While voters are furious at Democrats, 62 percent say they would have “reservations or be uncomfortable” with a candidate who “supported the economic policies of George W. Bush.” Still, most voters will blame Democrats—and not Bush—for their current troubles, said Ezra Klein in The Washington Post. Based on an analysis of several decades’ worth of results, political scientists say that elections are decided almost entirely on how people feel about the economy. With joblessness and stagnation still gripping the nation, “the White House may as well just govern”—and take its lumps in November.