It's deja vu all over again in Washington as the midterm elections rapidly approach and all signs point to an electoral route of the party in power. Four years ago, the Beltway was abuzz with news of a GOP bloodletting – the result of an increasingly unpopular President, an unpopular war, a spate of corruption scandals, and the general feeling that it was time for a change in Washington. The same pundits who correctly forecast defeat in 2006 see the same weather on the horizon in 2010, only this time it's the Democrats who find themselves in the path of the storm, beset by an unpopular president, a dismal economic picture, a host of domestic and foreign policy landmines, and a growing Tea Party movement.
Not surprisingly, this current state of affairs has Republicans feeling pretty optimistic about the future. Newt Gingrich has even suggested that the nation could witness a repeat of the Republican Revolution of 1994. And he just might be right. According to the latest Gallup poll, if the midterm elections were held now, the GOP would defeat the Democrats by a margin of ten points, and unless a miracle happens for President Obama and the Democrats in Congress, that kind of momentum will be hard to overcome in the two short months remaining before the midterm elections. Thus, at this point it appears that a Republican resurgence this November is a foregone conclusion.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether the American people will finally get the change they are seeking, or merely more of the same.
We've been down this road before. In 1994 the Republican Party, led by Gingrich, capitalized on public disenchantment with the Democrats and seized control of both houses of Congress. Its message to America was clear, compelling, and above all conservative. Why then, 12 years and one Republican president later, was the Democrat Party able to execute an electoral revolution of their own? And why is that revolution, four years and one Democratic president later, on the brink of collapse? The answer is simple, and points to a problem that has plagued both parties for far too long: An absolute dearth of integrity and authenticity in Washington. Candidates campaign one way and govern another. They espouse one set of beliefs and principles, only to abandon these beliefs and principles once they get to Washington. On the stump, they are for the people; in