“If there is a lesson in all this for both parties, perhaps it’s that merely piling up votes on Election Day doesn’t confer on you a mandate for any ambitious agenda — unless you have presented the voters with the difficult choices you intend to make”.  (Matt Bai, NY Times, November 3, 2010)

I agree.

But, who is responsible for creating an agenda with “difficult choices.”  Is it up to current and aspiring officeholders, or is it up to, well, us?

Pundits will talk in the coming days about the election results as a rejection of President Obama’s agenda. But let’s look at some factors to help evaluate what happened:

• Who voted, and why did they vote?


• Who didn’t vote, and why didn’t they?


• Let’s square up national, regional, and local campaigns with what it is that is happening in the communities in which the voting took place.

Looking at these questions is likely to expose many contradictions. It may also show that people who are most directly affected by the economic and public policy choices that officeholders make may not be the voters who decided the outcome of the elections. Did these folks vote and how did they vote?

• The 43 million living below the poverty line


• The 8 million recently unemployed, and the tens of millions who have lost good jobs over the past decades, almost all of whom are working at jobs that pay a lot less than the jobs they lost.


• The 48 million on Medicaid

Deficits: Federal, state local and personal

I think a lot of the voting swings on red ink, meaning voters understand from their own perspective that the taxes that they pay are not producing things they need. While many voters are not the most vulnerable in our society, the great American ethos of “fair play” winds up in the ditch because of widespread confusion about “why government doesn’t work.”

Growing income inequality over the past 35 years means that the middle class has shrunk profoundly. This means that personal economic insecurity among voters is extremely high. Voting for “fairness” at a time when the overwhelming majority borrows to make ends meet, even though they are working longer hours, is not an easy choice.

However, I do believe that most people in the U.S. vote for their version of “fairness.”

I also believe that the creation of an agenda with “difficult choices” is what most people want and deserve. 

Reduction of personal red ink. Good jobs. Affordable health care. Secure retirement. Day care.  Affordable, high quality education, a clean and safe environment, peace, fairness for all.  Ask anyone if they think these are the issues that matter, and many people will agree. 

Hard choices must be made. Difficult agendas must be created. Let’s begin the public debate.