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<big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times
New Roman","serif"">This time
voter response could be even worse, given the
overlay of other, additional legitimate
grievances by large voter constituencies that
previously voted for Democrats. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></span></big></big></big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">A close look at the 2012
elections shows that Obama won re-election largely
because of Hispanic, student youth, and union labor
votes delivered him the key states that made the
difference in his U.S. electoral college vote results.
In addition to the continuing economic legacies of 2010,
these key constituencies now have additional grievances
with the Democrats.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Millions of Latino
immigrants and Hispanics who had high hopes that
Democrats and Obama would address their needs and
grievances no longer believe Democrats and Obama can
deliver a solution. Millions of students with a combined
more than $1 trillion in loan debt, who are now paying
tens of billions a year in excess above-market interest
to the U.S. government no longer believe meaningful debt
relief is possible, even though it could with a mere
stroke of Obama’s pen.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">And union workers who
delivered key Midwest states to Democrats and Obama in
2012, and have received virtually nothing from Obama
since 2008 in return (except perhaps the very real
prospect of losing their negotiated health benefits in
the next few years due to the Obamacare health act) have
seen the Obama administration reject their unions’ every
appeal for assistance and reconsideration since 2012. <br>
</span></big></big></big></big></p>
<big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">It’s not that these key
constituencies will vote Republican. It’s that they will
likely not vote Democrat. They will vote with ‘the seat of
their pants’, as they say, and stay home. And that means
the loss of the Senate for Democrats next week.</span></big></big></big></big>
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<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><img
id="Picture_x0020_2"
src="cid:part1.04050203.06020106@comcast.net" alt="teleSUR"
height="103" width="251"><b><span
style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">teleSUR English</span></b><b><span
style="font-size:26.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><b><span
style="font-size:26.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">USA Midterm Elections: Past
and Present<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><b><span
style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">By Jack Rasmus<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Published 27 October 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><img id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:part2.04000102.02090606@comcast.net" alt="U.S.
President Barack Obama takes part in early voting at a
polling station in Chicago, Illinois October 20, 2014
(Photo: Reuters)" height="425" width="750"></span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><b><span
style="font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><small><small><small>U.S.
President Barack Obama takes part in early
voting at a polling station in Chicago,
Illinois October 20, 2014 (Photo: Reuters)</small></small></small><o:p></o:p></span></b></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">With the USA midterm
Congressional elections barely a week away on
November 4, it appears now almost certain that
Republicans will win the minimum six key Senate
races they need in order take control of the U.S.
Senate from the Democrats and the Obama
administration. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">In a previous essay
written in September, when the Democrats and the
U.S. mainstream press were still maintaining the
Democrats would hold on to the U.S. Senate, this
writer predicted that “Obama and the Democrats face
the very real possibility of losing control of the
U.S. Senate in November” (see ‘Barack Obama as Jimmy
Clinton’, teleSUR English, September 28, 2014). <br>
Now it is almost certain they will. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times
New Roman","serif"">Why Democrats
May Lose the US Senate</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Republicans need to
take back only 6 seats from the Democrats in the
Senate to gain control of that institution. A week
before the elections, they now hold comfortable
leads in at least six and are favored to win in two
more. The final outcome could be as high as ten
Senate seat losses for the Democrats, as Democrats
hold only slight leads in traditionally Republican
states like North Carolina and Louisiana.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">As the election comes
down to the wire, Democrats are becoming
increasingly desperate, pinning their hopes on long
shot wins in historically Republican bastion states
like Kansas and Georgia. Even lead editorials in the
New York Times now raise the specter, in bold
headlines, of a ‘The Democratic Panic’ now in
progress. Elsewhere high ranking party insiders,
like Jim Manley, former spokesperson for the Senate
Democratic Party leader, Harry Reid, are quoted
publicly saying that “There is a decent shot that we
are going to lose the Senate”.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">With the U.S. House
of Representatives already firmly in control of the
Republicans, and dominated by their
ultra-conservative Teaparty faction, should
Republicans in 2014 now also take the Senate the
U.S. Congress will quickly become even more
aggressively pro-corporate, pro-military
adventurist, and even more anti-US worker than it
has been to date. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">It is estimated that
spending on the 2014 midterm elections will exceed
$4 billion, about $2 billion raised each by
Republican and Democrat candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">For that $4 billion,
the American public can expect a new policy
aggressiveness to emerge immediately after the
election, driven by a newly confident, even more
conservative, pro-corporate right wing with firm
control of both houses of the U.S. Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">With the U.S. House
of Representatives already firmly in control of the
Republicans, and dominated by their
ultra-conservative Teaparty faction, should
Republicans in 2014 now also take the Senate the
U.S. Congress will quickly become even more
aggressively pro-corporate, pro-military
adventurist, and even more anti-US worker than it
has been to date. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">High on the agenda of
new policies that will quickly emerge from the
midterm elections, should the Republicans take the
Senate, will be the following policy initiatives:
new tax cuts for U.S. multinational businesses,
harsher treatment of immigrant workers in the USA,
more anti-environmental actions favoring shale
fracking, offshore drilling, pipelines, and CO2
industrial emissions rollbacks, renewed attacks on
the Medicaid health system for the poor and Medicare
health services for the retired, proposals for more
funding for wars in the middle east, demands for
more aggressive military support for the USA
engineered coup d’etat government in the Ukraine,
and perhaps even a renewed attack on social security
retirement benefits in the USA.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Strategists for both
Republicans and Democrats agree that the 2014
midterm election is about jobs and the economy.
While the stock and bond markets in the USA continue
their five year surge to new record heights,
providing even more capital gains income to the
wealthy and their corporations, the bottom 90% of
USA households continue to languish after more than
five years of so-called economic recovery.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">While the rich get
ever richer and corporations ever more profitable,
the Obama administration and the mainstream press
daily trumpet that more than six million new jobs
have been created since 2009. However, that same
mainstream press remains conspicuously silent about
the real facts about jobs and incomes in the USA.
For example, in a Bloomberg News interview this past
week, it was reported that 76% of the U.S. jobs
created since 2009 have been what is called
‘contingent’ jobs—i.e. 60% part time and another 16%
temporary jobs. Jobs that are paid 50%-65% less than
full time jobs. Jobs with no benefits, substandard
working conditions, and no job security.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Furthermore, while 6
million jobs have been created, according to the
mainstream press, little or no mention by that same
press is made about the 8 million USA workers who
have dropped out and left the labor force
altogether, disillusioned they could ever find work
sufficient to support themselves. If the latter 8
million were considered in the unemployment rate in
the USA—which they are not given the way the USA
underestimates its jobless—the true unemployment
rate in the USA would be in excess of 12% today
instead of the current official rate of about half
that.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">That’s 8 million
potentially unhappy voters. Add to their ranks the
4.5 million who were able only to get part time and
temp jobs; add the millions whose homes have been
foreclosed since 2009; add the millions of union
workers who now increasingly realize they will get
no benefit from Obama’s health care act and instead
will have their own costs of health insurance
doubled; add the millions of students now in debt to
the tune of more than $1 trillion in the USA; add
those millions fed up with the continued militarist
policies of the administration; and, not least, add
to all the above the key constituency that more than
any other enabled Obama to win a second term in
2012—i.e. the tens of millions of Hispanic workers
in the USA that Obama has recently turned his back
on once again.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times
New Roman","serif"">The Strategic
Latino-Hispanic Vote</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The Obama
administration since 2009 has deported more
undocumented Latin American immigrant workers, and
broken up more of their families as a result, than
all preceding presidents combined. More than 2
million have been deported on Obama’s watch. 438,000
in just 2013, which was 50,000 more than 2012, which
in turn was 30,000 more than in 2011. That’s
millions of potential family members and friends who
will not forget the hurt come November 4.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">And after promising
to end deportations and take executive action
himself on immigration earlier this year, Obama has
since retreated this past June and put all promises
about immigration reform on hold. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Not surprising, a
September 2014 NBC/Telemundo poll showed only 13% of
Latino voters in the USA felt “very positive” about
the Democratic Party.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The Hispanic vote was
key in 2012 to winning those states that put Obama
back into the White House. Today it is those same
states—Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
etc.—that are the key swing states up for grabs in
the race for the Senate.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">It is those same
states in which Democrats running for the Senate are
trailing well behind in voter polls. And if most
Latino and Hispanic voters stay home and don’t turn
out to vote, which appears the likely case next
week, then Democrat Senate candidates are doomed in
those same key states and Democrats will lose the
U.S. Senate ‘hands down’, as they say.<br>
Indicative of this likelihood was the headline in a
Wall St. Journal this past week that declared
‘Hispanic Voter Frustration Threatens Democrats
Most’. The story included a report by organizers of
the National Council of La Raza, who talked to
prospective Latino voters house to house in Florida.
The story noted that “many seemed to not be paying
attention to this election. ‘We’ve been let down so
many times, I don’t know who to support’, said Maria
Molina, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to vote’.” <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times
New Roman","serif"">A Tale of Two
Midterm Debacles: 2010 and 2014</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The two midterm
elections—2010 and 2014— are linked. They are part
of the same dynamic and process, begun in 2010 and
continuing to this day. And both the loss of the
U.S. House in 2010, and likely the U.S. Senate in
2014, have their roots in the policies adopted by
the Obama administration in the summer of 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Obama’s token fiscal
stimulus in 2009, which was barely 5% of USA GDP at
a time the U.S. economy was declining 15% in
2008-09, was insufficient to ensure a sustained
economic recovery. (Compare his to China’s 15% of
GDP fiscal stimulus package at the time).<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">By the summer of 2010
more fiscal stimulus for the U.S. economy was
clearly called for, as the 2009 stimulus began to
dissipate and the U.S. economy to stall out.
Unemployment began to rise once again by the tens of
thousands every month throughout the summer of 2010.
25 million were still unemployed. Homeowners’
foreclosures were accelerating at an average rate of
300,000 a month. Economic output was slowing
everywhere, with business, consumer, and local
government spending in retreat.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">But despite this 2010
summer scenario, the Obama administration ignored
the rising housing foreclosures, turning it over to
the States’ attorneys general deal with the problem.
Concerning jobs, he appointed the CEO of the General
Electric Corp, Jeff Immelt, to head up his ‘jobs
program’. Immelt’s jobs program turned out to be
more free trade, more tax benefits for multinational
corporations, and patent reform. Job losses and home
foreclosures not surprisingly continued to rise. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Instead of directly
addressing the continuing dual jobs and housing
crises at the time, Obama turned to providing even
more free money to bankers and investors. Following
the ‘quantitative easing’ (QE) U.S. central bank
program of 2009 that bought $1.7 trillion in bad
assets from bankers and wealthy investors, Obama had
the U.S. central bank provide an additional $600
billion in late 2010. He then proposed another $800
billion more in tax cuts for business as well. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">In just two years,
2009-2010, bankers and big capital would receive at
minimum a total of nearly $4 trillion in direct
subsidies, tax cuts, and free ‘no interest’ money.
(Since 2010 they have received at least $500 billion
dollars more in further business tax cuts, $2.2
trillion more in QE free money, and hundreds of
billions more in direct subsidies).<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">This focus on
recovery for bankers and big business, while doing
virtually nothing to address working and middle
classes crises in jobs, housing, and declining wages
and income, was not lost on American voters in the
fall of 2010. With business and investors being
bailed out without limit, working and middle class
America were receiving little, if anything, in terms
of jobs, housing rescue, or any other substantive
assistance. The November 2010 elections consequently
resulted in a debacle for Democrats, who lost
control of the U.S. House of Representatives by
historic margins.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Democrats also lost
the majority of State governorships up for election
in 2010. 2010 was a census year. That meant the
states, now mostly under Republican rule after the
2010 elections, could and did proceed to
‘gerrymander’ safe jurisdictions for Republicans in
future U.S. House elections. Gerrymandering would
ensure Republicans would hereafter have to worry
little about ever losing the U.S. House again.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The jobs crisis in
the USA has therefore still not been solved. There
is only a massive ‘jobs churn’—from full time to
contingent jobs, from high pay to low pay, and from
new entrants to the labor force to millions leaving
the labor force. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The same Obama
policies in 2010 that led to the Democrats loss of
the U.S. House of Representatives in that year’s
midterm Congressional elections still continue to
haunt Democrat Senate candidates this year, 2014:
Jobs, housing, stagnant and declining working class
wages and incomes, rising working class debt, and
slowing consumption by the vast majority of U.S.
households.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">While Obama and the
Democrats repeatedly refer to 6 million jobs having
been created since 2010, they are silent on the fact
that 4 million of those are part time, temporary,
and thus low paid. Nor do they mention that 8
million have left the labor force altogether. The
jobs crisis in the USA has therefore still not be
solved. There is only a massive ‘jobs churn’—from
full time to contingent jobs, from high pay to low
pay, and from new entrants to the labor force to
millions leaving the labor force. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Nor has the Housing
crisis been solved—at least for working and middle
class Americans. A brief period of housing recovery
in 2011-12 has resulted in a new slowdown. In the
interim, housing sales were mostly to the wealthiest
households or to institutional investors and foreign
buyers—not the normal middle class buyer. Meanwhile,
median working class families’ wages and incomes
have continued to decline 1%-2% every year for the
past four years, and household debt levels for
median families have continued to rise.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">This basically
stagnant state of economic affairs affecting the
vast majority of U.S. workers and households has not
been lost on the average voter today, in 2014, any
more than it was lost on the same voter in 2010. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">This time, in 2014,
the large number of Senate seats that were won by
Democrats in 2008 are up for re-election. Those
Democrats won Senate seats in 2008 from what had
been historically traditional Republican seats in
pro-Republican states. Now, in 2014, most of those
seats will likely revert back to Republicans again.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times
New Roman","serif"">The Legacies of
2010 + New Grievances</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif""><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">The Obama and
Democrat policies and programs of 2010 that led to
their midterm 2010 election debacle have never
really changed. Those policies in 2010 did little
to create jobs, ignored the foreclosure crisis and
failed to generate a sustained housing recovery, and
did nothing about working families’ steady decline
in wages and incomes. That cost the Democrats the
U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Today in 2014 little
is fundamentally different after four years, except
that the key voter constituencies Democrats are
courting in 2014 Senate races—i.e. Hispanic, student
youth, and union workers—have been even more abused
in the interim. This time voter response could be
even worse, given the overlay of other, additional
legitimate grievances by large voter constituencies
that previously voted for Democrats. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">A close look at the
2012 elections shows that Obama won re-election
largely because of Hispanic, student youth, and
union labor votes delivered him the key states that
made the difference in his U.S. electoral college
vote results. In addition to the continuing economic
legacies of 2010, these key constituencies now have
additional grievances with the Democrats.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">Millions of Latino
immigrants and Hispanics who had high hopes that
Democrats and Obama would address their needs and
grievances no longer believe Democrats and Obama can
deliver a solution. Millions of students with a
combined more than $1 trillion in loan debt, who are
now paying tens of billions a year in excess
above-market interest to the U.S. government no
longer believe meaningful debt relief is possible,
even though it could with a mere stroke of Obama’s
pen.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">And union workers who
delivered key Midwest states to Democrats and Obama
in 2012, and have received virtually nothing from
Obama since 2008 in return (except perhaps the very
real prospect of losing their negotiated health
benefits in the next few years due to the Obamacare
health act) have seen the Obama administration
reject their unions’ every appeal for assistance and
reconsideration since 2012. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:normal"><big><big><big><big><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman","serif"">It’s not that these
key constituencies will vote Republican. It’s that
they will likely not vote Democrat. They will vote
with ‘the seat of their pants’, as they say, and
stay home. And that means the loss of the Senate for
Democrats next week.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><big><big><o:p> </o:p></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><big><big><o:p> </o:p></big></big></big></big></p>
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