What is it with the League of Woman’s Voters and the Pledge of Allegiance?

For the second time in less than a week a congressional debate began with a request for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and for the second time in a week the League of Woman’s Voters moderator said no, and for the second time in a week the audience got up and said it anyway.  One would think that with all of the bad publicity after last week’s incident, the League would have “gotten it.” But Tuesday night the League of Woman Voters proved that they aren’t too “quick on the uptake.”

The Pennsylvania 18th Congressional district debate between Republican incumbent Tim Murphy and his Democratic party challenger Dan Connolly was about to begin when Murphy asked the moderator for the pledge. As the moderator Susan Reuther began to make excuses, the crowd stood up and took action on their own.

After the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, moderator Susan Reuther dealt with her obvious consternation over the spontaneous show of patriotism by scolding Candidate Murphy who asked for the pledge.

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On Monday night, my opponent Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) delivered this speech to Democrats at a restaurant in Chicago–with U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and Governor Pat Quinn in attendance:

All around the country, people are trying to replicate what we do in Chicago. They–we have a tradition of knockin’ on doors, of pulling people out–you know, people, they talk about “message” and “persuasion.” Here’s our message: “I don’t get off your doorstep until you get out to the polls and vote.” That’s our message! That’s our message!

There’s nothing wrong with going door-to-door and urging people to vote. There is something wrong–and illegal–with “pulling” people out of their homes, or threatening that you won’t leave until they do what you tell them.

It’s called intimidation, and it is a felony under Illinois law–even if it is, in Jan Schakowsky’s experience, a “tradition” in Chicago politics.

There are two reasons to be concerned about Schakowsky’s exhortation. One is that it may be part of a national strategy for desperate Democrats in this election cycle. Indeed, her husband, Washington insider and convicted felon Robert Creamer, gave the same advice (almost word-for-word) in a recent Huffington Post column. (And repeated it. And repeated it again. And again.)

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With the setting of the sun this Wednesday night, Jews across the world will begin the observance of the Yomim Noraim (Days of Awe), a ten day period book-ended by the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year’s High Holiday period comes at an interesting time for America as the first night of Rosh Hashanah comes a mere fifty-four days before the United States goes to the polls to between two radically different directions, one which emphasizes personal responsibility, the other emphasizes a reliance on government. Only one of those directions is compatible with the true meaning of the High Holidays.

Three times in the television era, voter anger has led to midterm losses approaching or exceeding 50 seats for the President’s Party. In 1966, 47 seats were lost, 48 seats were lost in 1974 and 52 seats were lost in 1994. In only one of those cases, however, did the Party that gained seats turn that voter anger into a long term mandate: 1994. The question this year is whether Republicans will follow the successful model of 1994 or make the same mistakes the Republicans made in 1966 and the Democrats made in 1974.

Voter Anger Equals Election Losses. In 1966, despite an economy growing at over 6% per year, Democrats and Lyndon Johnson lost 47 House seats. They managed that feat, in defiance of the “It’s the economy stupid” theory, by angering a significant portion of the voting populace with noneconomic policies on the Vietnam War, Civil Rights and the Great Society. That dynamic deflated Johnson’s approval rating to just 49%. In 1974, voter anger arose over an ethics backlash against the Republicans, i.e. Watergate, and a bad economy. Combined with Ford’s post pardon approval rating of 47%, the Republicans lost 48 seats. In 1994, despite a growing economy and 5 million new jobs dating back into the final year of the Bush Administration, Clinton’s approval rating was 46% and the Democrats lost 52 seats. Clinton gaffes and his decision to push through the largest tax increase in history – despite his promise to enact a middle class tax cut – fueled voter anger that year.

Anger Does Not Equal A Mandate. Obviously, voter anger, even with a good economy, can lead to poor Presidential approval ratings. Those Presidential approval ratings below 50% resulted in an average midterm loss of a staggering 49 seats. Even so, the combined elections of 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972 did not bring a Republican majority in Congress. Despite big gains in 1974, the Democrats barely won the Presidency in 1976, lost seats in 1978, and lost the Presidency by a wide margin in 1980. In other words, those big election gains were not transformed into enduring mandates.

There is an obvious reason why.

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The New York Times reports this weekend that:

“SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.”

Read down the article and note the several claims by participants offering the greatest exhibits imaginable at the running absurdity — now in its 18th year! — that is this movable feast of conferences in Rio, Barcelona, Bangkok, Bali, Buenos Aires, Bonn, and next month Copenhagen: We had to declare it a failure in advance in order to ensure its success. Mmm. Yes.

But here’s the far larger point, and Team Tea Party and simpatico coalescences should take note and begin organizing accordingly:

This also makes the Kyoto II, the proposed twenty five-year extension of a five-year plan that was the Kyoto treaty, an inescapable issue for the 2010 U.S. mid-term elections.

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