Election 2018 in Context: A Political System Out of Sync with the
Nation It's Supposed to Serve
Scott Rasmussen Nov 15, 2018 12:01 AM Townhall.com
In the wake of Election 2018, analysts have delved deeply into
a seemingly limitless supply of data points to explain the
details of what happened. What role did suburban women play? Or
health care? Was there a Kavanaugh effect?
This obsession with details may be causing us to miss the
bigger picture of what's going on.
Donald Trump became the fourth consecutive president to win the
presidency with his party in control of Congress and then lose
control. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack
Obama have all been there before.
This swapping back and forth of political power has been going
on for so long that it somehow seems normal. But it's not. A
streak like this has never happened before in American history.
In fact, prior to 1992, it had never happened during even two
consecutive presidencies.
This ongoing dissatisfaction and desire for change reflects a
fundamental rejection of both political parties. Republicans and
Democrats are both capable of tapping into discontent when the
other team is in power. However, neither party has figured out
how to deliver meaningful accomplishments when given the chance
to exercise power.
Why is this happening? Why hasn't either party figured out a
governing philosophy that can appeal to voters?
Most likely, it's because neither party has come to grips with
the digital revolution. Oh, sure, they have social media
consultants for campaigns and send all kinds of carefully
targeted online messages to their base. But they are still
envisioning a political order that existed before Apple and
Microsoft changed the world.
From colonial days up until the 1970s, everything in America got
bigger, more centralized and more homogenized. Three television
networks controlled 94 percent of the prime-time audience. The
political system followed suit and developed a bigger central
government.
In that pre-digital world, official Washington dreamt of a
top-down government in which very smart people made the rules for
the rest of us to live by. The two parties competed by trying to
convince voters that their team would make the best rules.
But, the new technologies of the 1970s launched a great
turnaround, and society began to decentralize. Rather than just
three television networks, we could choose from countless cable
channels, and later the internet. Things really took off with
the creation of the smartphone, one of the most revolutionary
pieces of technology ever developed.
While society was decentralizing, the political system continued
to march in the opposite direction. Political power is more
centralized than ever, and a vast regulatory state has emerged.
The disconnect between a decentralizing society and a
centralizing political system is the underlying tension creating
our toxic political environment today.
Just like in the 1970s, both Republicans and Democrats in
official Washington still talk in terms of a one-size-fits-all
governing solution. They think voters are looking to them to
make the decisions that will determine the fate of the nation.
But this is the 21st century, and we have access to more
information in our smartphones today than the president had in
the '70s. Voters aren't looking for one team or the other to
make the key decisions for us. Instead, we want to make more of
those decisions for ourselves.