[lbo-talk] predicting a republican blowout in 2010

[Somebody Somebody]

The American citizenry is simply responding to economic vicissitudes. The economy is still in the doldrums, so they're turning out the incumbents. When it recovers in time for the Mayan apocalypse in 2012, they'll return Obama in a landslide. Meanwhile, in the UK, because of the time of the elections, and since Brown couldn't delay them any longer, the Tories will possibly return to be power. If he could have postponed the poll until 2012, as in America, the Prime Minister would enjoy a continued premiership. And so it goes.

In neither case, can a reasonable argument be made that a radical, albeit politically quiescent working class is groaning under the rule of a center-left party that has betrayed them. The fact is, most liberal Democrats or more ideological Labour MP's are to the left of their respective populations, whether we like it or not.