The pessimism of this election is well-deserved because the no-nothings voted for change again, but they didn't have a clue about what that change would be and they have ensured another two years of economic stagnation and failure.
No distinctions were made regarding politicians, it really didn't matter what they stood for or how they had performed in the past, it only mattered that they were part of the status quo so anyone was else was more desirable.
The people want the politicians to "work together" to solve the very real problems of the country, so they voted in people who have avowed that they will not compromise, they will not work together, that its my way or the highway.
The people want civility in Washington so they vote in some of the most uncivil and almost voted in even worse.
The people want jobs so they voted in people who will not provide jobs, who will not stimulate the economy or future industries that could provide jobs, who will continue the ever-widening gap between rich and the rest, who are likely to shut down the government and engage in witch hunts for secret muslims, and global warming hoaxes, and finding a way to impeach the president and roll back health care for 35 million people [which the CBO says will save money for the government over the next 20 years]. They don't want to improve the health care bill, they want to repeal it, because the idea that health care should be a right not a privilege is socialism.
I realized after 2000 that elections do matter and that someone gets elected no matter what. It is unlikely that any politician will actually change the system that made him or her. It's unlikely that they will ever change the system where money is influence and influence sets much of the agenda. Ralph Nader was right, Gore wouldn't be fundamentally different that Bush. He was a representative of the powers that be and he would not significantly change those powers. However, that said, change does occur on the margins. We would not have unnecessarily invaded Iraq and spent almost 3T dollars had Gore been elected. We would not have spent another 8 years denying climate change was real and starting to actually tackle the same energy crisis that Jimmy Carter warned about in 1979. We might have had eight years of research into treatments and cures for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Would the financial crisis that hit in 2008 have happened. It's likely since the causes were set in motion 30 years ago with the deregulatory fever that gripped the nation with Reagan's ascendance. It's likely because Alan Greenspan would still have failed to see the flaw in his economic theory and popped the housing bubble before it became an F5 tornado. But on the margins, our lives would have been better.
The same is true in 2010. A Democratic Congress would not have ended world hunger, put a chicken in every pot, fundamentally changed the broken election system or the broken financial system. The Democrats are too beholden to special interest to fundamentally challenge the powers that run the world, but they would have continued unemployment benefits, they might have made infrastructure spending a priority, they might have moved us towards a better energy future, they might have made real improvements in education in this country. These are where the margins meet people. Instead, we have rewarded the obstruction and nastiness of the Republican minority, we have told them their efforts at bringing down the President and hurting the economy have worked for them politically, so why should they change. I believe that most politicians aren't really in this job for the good of the country, its for themselves. We just showed the GOP that the best chance they have for 2012 is more of the same no matter how bad it might be for the no-nothings who vote, because a bad economy in 2012 is their best chance of winning politically.
I keep saying, I'm glad I won't live to see the results of these destructive policies, but unfortunately, I will see the slow decline in that direction. Ten years ago, it was widely believed that we had reached the end of history. Boy were we wrong. It appears like we are heading for the BRIC century, where unfettered capitalism wins, and political freedom is just another phrase for nothing else to lose.
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