Change, Again

Americans, at least the majority of them, got what they wanted this election season, just as they did two years ago: change.

This time, of course, the Grand Old Party was the big beneficiary of an anxious and angry electorate. In 2008, Democrats surfed the tidal wave of economic trepidation to a tremendous victory.

Maybe we should remember what it was about the autumn of 2008 that helped push the Democrats to victory.

However, in September 2008, the U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.2 percent. Compare that to 9.6 percent in September 2010.

And sure, the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, according to the folks at the National Bureau of Economic Research, but that message didn’t make it to the electorate. That’s probably because a lot of them are still looking for work, fighting off foreclosure or wondering if their businesses can survive just another few months.

President Obama acknowledged the mood the day after his party was, for the most part, soundly whipped.

“We’ve stabilized the economy, we’ve got job growth in the private sectors, but people all across America aren’t feeling that progress,” he said.

They’re certainly not feeling it in Arkansas. Here, Republicans scored a historic victory. They now have four of the six congressional seats, three of the state’s seven constitutional officers and are close to holding half of the General Assembly positions.

And consider this: In three of those state constitutional offices, the GOP didn’t even put forward a candidate. Heck, in the race for state Treasurer, former state Rep. Bobby Tullis took almost a third of the vote running as a Green Party candidate. Of course, he was facing off against Martha Shoffner, the politically tone-deaf Democrat forced to apologize last summer for saying that Gov. Mike Beebe was driven around by a “manservant,” i.e., official State Police escort. We’re pretty confident that in those three races, just having an “R” by one’s name would have guaranteed victory.

Doyle Webb, state GOP chairman, is probably correct in his assessment that Arkansas has crossed the threshold into a two-party state.

But we think Beebe – who was one of the few Democrats in Arkansas, or anywhere, to handily defeat his opposition – is also correct in his assessment about the nature of the Arkansas electorate: They want to see effective leadership, and they won’t tolerate partisanship.

“The people of Arkansas really spoke pretty loud in all these races, including the governor’s race,” Beebe said.

“I think that it behooves all of us to say we accept the will of the voters and that that’s what the democracies are all about, and act accordingly and work together. If somebody decides they don’t want to work cooperatively then ultimately the voters will take care of them.”

Compromise, in other words, or the voters will take just as they gave.