Party's Over Conservatives, Prepare for Battle

Charles Krauthammer thinks the 2011 elections were a clear warning to conservatives: “The 2010 party is over. 2012 will be a struggle,” he writes in the Washington Post. In Ohio voters easily rejected a law limiting public sector unions—though they also voted against the individual health care mandate in Obamacare. In four gubernatorial races, each party held the two seats they already controlled. “This kind of status quo ticket-splitting firmly refutes the lazy conventional narrative of an angry electorate seething with anti-incumbency fervor.”

“American politics are, as always, inherently cyclical,” Krauthammer muses. “Tuesday showed that the powerful Republican tailwind of 2010 is now becalmed,” and 2012 could break either way. Voters are a sophisticated bunch—Mississippi's decidedly pro-life electorate, for example, rejected a personhood amendment over nuanced concerns about potential unintended consequences. “This is no disoriented, easily led citizenry,” Krauthammer concludes. “For Republicans, this means there is no coasting to victory, 9% unemployment or not. They need substance.” (More Charles Krauthammer stories.)