Why Are The Midterms So Meh? Ctd

Beinart ponders our collective apathy:

The dullness comes from this election’s lack of a compelling macro-theme. Yes, there are national refrains: Democrats in state after state call their Republican opponents heartless misogynists; Republicans call their Democratic opponents Obama clones. But there’s no big national issue on which voters feel that they can change the country’s course. It’s not that candidates today are more cynical or homogenized than in midterms past. It’s that the subjects they’re discussing cynically and homogenously don’t matter as much. …

Republicans still denounce Obamacare, but few still believe they can repeal it. Big partisan differences about the size of government remain, but with the deficit going down and Republicans no longer willing to go to the brink over the debt limit, the crisis atmosphere of 2010 has faded. Overseas, Americans worry about Ebola and ISIS, but those threats don’t divide them along partisan lines like Iraq. There’s little reason to believe that electing a Republican Senate would substantially change American policy toward either.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying next month’s elections don’t matter. They do. As Annie Lowrey has predicted, a Republican Senate—if elected—will work mightily to prevent President Obama from using his executive authority to implement a broad range of government regulation. But these potential fights are mostly too narrow and too technical to grab public attention. Americans just don’t believe that as much hinges on their vote as did in 1998, 2002, 2006, or 2010. For many pundits, that makes this election boring. For many ordinary Americans, I suspect, it’s something of a relief.

Along the same lines, Lee Drutman and Mark Schmitt blame our politicians’ lack of big ideas on polarization:

Historically, parties and candidates have sought political advantages by trying to raise the salience of particular issues that might cut across party lines. The assumption was that voters might support Democrats on some issues, while they might agree with Republicans on other issues. So, for example, a pro-choice Republican might be able to win over enough Democratic voters to emerge victorious in a Democratic district, or the reverse. …

As party politics has become at once more homogenous and polarized, it’s not only harder to reach a compromise at the end – such as on immigration reform or the federal budget. There’s also less room for ideas and fresh approaches to issues at the beginning. The “political issue space,” once wide open and full of opportunities to form new coalitions, is now narrow and closed.