How does a president with 50% approval ratings squeak by, but a Congress with approval ratings below 10% goes unchallenged? Sounds backwards.
This right here! I was surprised at the amount of Republicans taking house seats still.
Tip O'Neill was well known for saying, "All politics is local". It's pretty well known that people want high ideals in their national leaders, but when it comes to the folks who actually represent them locally, they want someone who will work for things that they think will be to their advantage.
Like cutting taxes.
Our state legislature race was between two professors at the local Penn State branch campus. Both educated, well spoken men, neither one stupid. The democrat promised to work hard to solve local problems, and had a lot of good plans to get the region working again, improve infrastructure, and improve life in general. The republican promised things that made no sense - abolish property taxes,
and cut income tax, and cut government services beyond the bone. My favorite was "return control of our schools to the community" (does he even
know what a local school board is?) But he used all the emotional triggers, and so you knew he was going to win.
Oh, and I used to work with both of them. The Democrat is a Physics professor, a smart, nice, down-to-earth guy. The Republican is a political science professor, a pompous git, very condescending and pretty rude. And, with republican backing (read: money) he sent out a whole stack of incredibly slick mailers full of emotional, button pushing gobbledeygook. The democrat really never had a chance.