Lessons from 2006 national elections.

I ran into this excellent piece from USATODAY's Susan Page on the five (5) lessons discerned from the recent elections and I thought I'd share it with you. Here are the 5 lessons excerpted here:1) The center did not hold. In 1994, "the angry white men" gave Republicans a win. In 2006, "Republican rejectors", comprising about 15% of the electorate and "the least ideologican and partisan", gave the nod to Democrats. 2) Reaching out is hard to do. According to Ken Mehlman, outgoing Chairman of the RNC, "Republicans rel[ied] too much on white guys for our voters." This pretty much sums up this lesson. 3) It's not your father's US. This lesson suggests a shifting political geographical climate. "Democrats consolidated their hold on the Northeast so firmly that it now provides a greater building block for the Democrats than the South provides for the GOP," says Rhodes Cook, a non-partisan analyst who studies voting trends. This suggests also that Democrats may now be able to whistle past Dixie on their way to the White House. 4) "It's NOT the economy, stupid". This election was not about the robust economy. "Particularly in the nation's heartland, anxiety about slow-rising wages, outsourced jobs, imperiled pensions and the rising costs of health care and college tuition overwhelmed relatively good economic news on corporate earnings, productivity and employment." And, 5) Voters wanted change ... any change. Though 2006 voters voted for change, it was not clear what change. "There's a large turn against where we've been and no clarity about where we're going," says Robert Borosage of Campaign for America's Future. "Democrats basically ran as ... 'We're not them,' " says Rhodes Cook, editor of The Rhodes Cook Letter.
What's clear to me? the none-of-the-above category is the political force to be watched in 2008 and beyond, as Democratic voters are on the decline, Republicans stagnant and the ranks of independents swelling as we speak. So stay tuned. 2008 will be exciting in the political world as both parties learn to adjust to a new political reality.