This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

"Different This Time Around?"

It seems as though everyone is commenting on the upcoming midterms and in most cases it seems as though their analysis of it is wrong. Yes, the GOP is going to walk away with some significant gains but, is this really any different than any other midterm? The short answer is no however, there is a certain intangible difference in the level of anger and frustration that the article eludes to.
Also, the effect of John Stewart and Stephan Colbert is a little overplayed. I, as I assume the rest of the class too, do not pull there political news from late night comedy shows.

2 comments:

Ryan Evers said...

I'm not really sure about the point of this article. Is Simon trying to say that this election season is violent and others weren't? Because the Democrats very completely civil in 04, 06, and 08 right(sarcasm noted). He also convienently leaves out the story of a black conservative getting the shit beat out of him last summer by SEIU thugs, just because he was a black conservative. All elections bring out emotions, but it seems the media only cares when its a republican wave election. I don't remember NBC making a big deal of Code Pink's violent rehtoric, or the signs calling for the murder of Bush at speeches. Now that I am done venting let me also say that clown in Kentucky should be thrown in jail, he is just as bad as the liberals I was just refering too. I just wish the media would hold everybody too the same standards.

Annie Prak said...

Besides the more visible level of frustration and anger that you mention, I think that some may be viewing the 2010 midterms as "different" due the emergence of the Tea Party. Until now, the Tea Party has remained largely a grassroots movement, lobbying for change in Washington without having an actual seat at the table. With the elections, the Tea Party may move beyond being outliers of the Republican Party to outliers with active representatives in Congress, a significant difference.
Also, I don't think the impact of political comedians such as Stewart and Colbert should be underestimated. While those of us pursuing political science academically may not rely solely on shows like the Daily Show for our daily news, I think many of our generation who are not necessarily interested in politics are getting a significant amount of their political news from such sources, perhaps because they have no interest in pursuing the news otherwise.

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