In Maine, Tea Party candidate Paul LePage won the governorship with only 38% of the vote. That means that 62% of the state voted against him. The problem is that there were 5 candidates. The next closest was an independent with 37% of the vote. Clearly, the Republican winner has no mandate from Maine voters. Clearly, there is a need for reform to enable a run off election if no one gets a majority.
This is the general problem with the 2010 mid-term election. Assumptions are being made that the state and the country voted for the Republican agenda. I do not believe this happened. I do not believe that people voted to reduce deficits-most do not really care about defecits. They did not vote to reduce or privatize social security. They did not vote to eliminate health care-most of the provisions have not even gone into effect. They did not vote to eliminate or reduce unemployment benefits. They did not vote to fire hundreds of thousands of government workers and teachers. They did not vote to eliminate climate change regulations that will save the planet. They did not vote to make it easier for companies to to pollute; for banks to take our homes; for credit card companies to drive us deeper into debt.
There certainly needs to be change. People do want to end wasteful spending, eliminate fraud, and reduce intrusion in their lives. But clearly, there is no mandate to turn the country over to big corporations and to eliminate programs so desperately to help people in these trying times-times which were generated by excessive greed.
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