Written by Edmund Zimmerman   

To explain further my somewhat hyperbolic post concerning the low turnout in the November 2, 2010 elections, it’s important to illustrate my point in the context of the general media firestorm of triumphalism. Other than what’s available on the internet, the various forms of information dissemination (TV and print) available to us Americans are all...ALL...controlled by large, sometimes multi-national corporations (not all US corporations), from Murdoch’s Newscorp, to General Electric’s or soon to be Comcast’s NBC, Disney, Viacom, Bertelsmann, and Vivendi, down through the large newspaper chains of Gannett, Tribune Corp., and New York Times, to gigantic radio conglomerates like Clear Channel. The political contributions made by these corporations---hugely favoring Republicans---accurately mirror the reporting as well as the punditry offered by these corporations, while usually disguising it as apolitical neutrality. (No surprise that the pet Republicans of these companies are outraged by Net Neutrality.)

Obama’s programs have met with absolute lockstep Republican opposition and lukewarm, at best support within his own party, but the media explanations of popular reactions to his policies outstrips even republican rhetoric. His healthcare legislation, as eviscerated as its final draft reads, could still be construed as a threat to the gigantic pharmaceutical and private healthcare companies. His fiscal stimulus package, credited by most independent economists (read: economists not on the payroll of corporations, Wall Street, or right wing think tanks), with ameliorating somewhat the battered economy that Obama found on his first day in office, is repeatedly dismissed as the plan of a typical “tax and spend” Democrat. His Wall Street and Credit and banking reforms, promoted in response to the greed, corruption, and horrible failings in the financial sector are dismissed as government meddling in free markets.

One doesn’t have to read between the lines of the media voices promoting these views because this election has given them all the chance to equate Republican gains with the voice of the people. Long before the election itself, opinion polls (talk about a growth industry) were being used to bolster one bogus argument after another in the name of “the American people”. The results of an October 17th Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll was touted by AP in its headline, “Poll: Those craving for change now look to the GOP”, as indicating a defection in the ranks of former Obama supporters toward voting republican. The fuzzy, ambiguous questions in the poll were further misrepresented with fuzzy interpretation. One had to read a thousand words into the article to discover that 8% of respondents who claimed to have voted for Obama said they were thinking about supporting republican candidates. The fact that 9% of respondents who claimed to have voted for John McCain said that they were thinking of supporting democrats would seem to have made this a non-story, but the decision was made to prop up the coming narrative about the election results. This story was picked up by media outlets all over the country. Election night coverage on all the networks and front page reportage in all the newspapers invariably mirrored the reigning narrative about this election being a repudiation of Obama’s policies.

My main point is that the only movement in the electorate between 2008 and 2010 has been away from the polls. There was no movement at all toward Republican candidates or ideals and absolutely no mandate against Obama’s policies. Almost 40 million Americans who participated in the 2008 election did not vote in 2010. (The United States Elections Project estimates that 38% of eligible voters turned out in 2010, while 63% turned out in 2008.) The vast majority of stay-at-homes were Obama supporters in the last election, but the reduction in votes cast for Republican candidates was also staggering. Other than the extremist Tea Party voters, who follow Glenn Beck and his bizarre reiteration of the teachings of discredited right wing Mormon theorist Willard Skousen (Everyone from Woodrow Wilson to Dwight Eisenhower were Communist spies...), there was no groundswell of potential voters decrying public intervention in our health plans---50 million of us don’t even have one. People on Main Street are not clamoring to protect Wall Street billionaires from government regulation. Most people don’t see the money that’s funding highway and bridge and public safety projects to renovate our badly decaying infrastructure as money wasted.

Certainly many Obama supporters have come to view his presidency as ineffectual. Some on the left have felt betrayed. Maybe even a few actually believe what they’ve been hearing constantly about his interventionist trends. But the January Supreme Court decision allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace has helped giant corporations with direct financial interests in election results gain even more unfettered access to the political stage, profoundly influenced voter turnout and voting trends, while their obsequious employees at the major media outlets continue to attempt to dictate public opinion in their pointedly narrow interpretations of the results. Giving the entire electoral process the unhealthy glow of a $4 billion makeover has served these paymasters exceedingly well, but as Americans know better than any other democratic electorate in the world, Tuesday is a helluva tough workday and if you avoid basic cable, the evenings TV offerings aren’t that bad. This is exactly the desired effect and a hell of a lot easier than convincing a majority of the population to take the Tea Party seriously.

The following state by state vote totals from statewide elections were obtained from the United States Election Project (http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html) , the Federal Election Commission, and CNN Election Center.

(votes cast for followed by the difference in votes cast from 2008 to 2010)
2008 Wisconsin: democrats 1,677,211 republicans 1,262,393
2010 Wisconsin: democrats 1,020,860 republicans 1,125,637
How many fewer? democrats - 656,351 republicans - 136,756

2008 Illinois: democrats 3,419,348 republicans 2,031,179
2010 Illinois: democrats 1,694,093 republicans 1,765,594
How many fewer? democrats - 1,725,255 republicans - 265,581

2008 Pennsylvania: democrats 3,276,363 republicans 2,655,885
2010 Pennsylvania: democrats 1,916,703 republicans 1,995,026
How many fewer? democrats - 1,359,660 republicans – 660,859

2008 South Carolina: democrats 862,449 republicans 1,034,896
2010 South Carolina: democrats 358,276 republicans 792,133
How many fewer? democrats - 504,173 republicans - 242,763

2008 Texas: democrats 3,528,633 republicans 4,479,328
2010 Texas: democrats 2,102,606 republicans 2,733,784
How many fewer? democrats – 1,426,027 republicans - 1,745,544

2008 Florida: democrats 4,282,074 republicans 4,045,624
2010 Florida:democrats 1,076,028 republicans 2,615,262 independents (Crist)1,588,821
(Subtractions could be misleading here, but let it suffice to note that more than 3 million people fewer cast ballots.)