Thinking about the results of yesterday’s elections, one thing sticks out to me. America isn’t really anti-incumbent, but rather anti-old school politics.
Let’s start in Kentucky. Rand Paul beat Secretary of State Trey Grayson, making him the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate. Rand Paul doesn’t have a political career like his opponent, but he did have the Tea Party behind him. But I believe there was an equal force behind Paul’s victory. Grayson got a couple kisses of death, one from minority leader Mitch McConnell and a bigger one from Dick Cheney, who is now 0-3 on endorsements.
Then we have the Democratic Senate primary between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak. Unlike Specter and his 30 years in Senate, Sestak is a relatively new comer to the political stage, only in his third year in Congress. Pennsylvania has always been pretty much a toss-up state, they did give us Rick Santorum after all. But the interesting thing is that Sestak, a rather liberal candidate, has consistently polled much better against his Republican challenger than Specter, to the tune of about 10 points.
So what does Sestak have that Specter doesn’t? Well Sestak has his platform. When Specter decided to switch parties last year, it was the final proof that he is a guy more worried about his job than he is his beliefs. That’s the Washington mentality that Americans are tired of. It’s a self-fulfilling, me, me, me attitude that many of our politicians have today.
Joe Sestak hasn’t flipped on any issues. He says what he believes and sticks with it. Today that is a winning platform.
This can also be seen in Arkansas. Here you have Blanche Lincoln facing a run-off against Bill Halter. Halter is very progressive in one of the last remaining Dixie-Crat states, where Democrats are further to the right. For a progressive to do that well against a DINO like Lincoln in Arkansas is amazing. And again, Halter has always stuck by his beliefs, not his career.
It all reminds me of a poll done a few months ago where Republicans in Florida gave Allan Grayson a huge thumbs up. The respondents didn’t agree with Grayson’s politics, but they loved the fact that he stuck to his beliefs and fought for them tooth and nail.
What it boils down to is that Americans want a new class of politician. They want people who worry more about the people they represent than their own careers. Americans are tired of the flip-floppers, which have become all to common.
The current class of politician forgets that we live in a day of 24-hour opinion news and YouTube. They can sit there and do a total 180 on a position, forgetting that there are tons of videos on the web showing just the opposite. This is something we see everyday from Republicans and Democrats.
So maybe our political system is getting back to where our founding fathers envisioned. No longer will Americans tolerate politicians who are worried about nothing more than their careers. Now they must worry about their ideologies, beliefs and the people they represent. For a final example of this, you need to look no further than Arizona, where John McCain is having the primary fight of his life. Again – we have an old-school politician, who doesn’t worry about his beliefs, but only his job. And if I was John McCain, I would be worried to death after the results from yesterday.