Frustrated voters are pushing moderates aside

WASHINGTON – America is united in its frustration over the economy, over Washington, over where the country is heading.

But it’s deeply split about how to fix some of the nation’s biggest woes – a ballooning federal debt, near 10 percent joblessness and a sluggish recovery.

With a divided government looming, President Barack Obama and ascendant Republicans faced only two options: compromise or stalemate.

Can this new power structure – one with different ideological philosophies to fix increasingly complex problems – actually lead a sharply polarized country that can’t agree on where it wants to go? Will the politicians even try?

If voters don’t know what they want beyond something different from the status quo, how can a government deliver, much less one that’s divided?

These will be the central questions of the next two years as a weakened Obama, diminished Democrats and resurgent Republicans try to figure out how to meet the demands of a suffering electorate that now seems to perpetually crave change. And how to keep their jobs in 2012.

“Maybe it is a message from the American public. We’ve got a Democrat in the White House. We’ll have a majority Republican governors. We’ll have a Democratic Senate, Republican House,” Democratic Party Chairman Tim Kaine said late Tuesday, well before the election was over. “Everybody’s got to work together.”

If they can.

Republicans and Democrats have opposite – and deeply ingrained – viewpoints on tax, health care, and fiscal policy, making it hard to see how they would find solutions both sides could accept. They agree that stimulating the economy and creating jobs should be at the top of the list, but they part ways over how to accomplish those goals.

If there is a model for the way forward in recent history, it’s provided by President Bill Clinton, who established himself as more of a centrist by working with Republicans to pass welfare reform after Democrats lost their grip on Congress in 1994. But Obama and the Republicans would be hard pressed to find a similar defining issue that would address economic anxiety.

That’s particularly true given how much more partisan Capitol Hill – and the political parties themselves – have become in recent years. It’s getting even more polarized as voters elect tea party-backed Republicans and fire conservative-to-moderate “blue dog” Democrats.

In a sign of acrimony ahead, Republicans put the president on notice that the GOP’s cooperation was conditional.

“We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people, change course, and commit to making the changes they are demanding. To the extent he is willing to do this, we are ready to work with him,” said House Republican leader John Boehner, who expects to be speaker in January.

For now, this much is clear from the midterm elections: a country in economic crisis is – from the voters to the politicians – enormously conflicted over the way forward.

An Associated Press analysis of preliminary exit poll results showed that most voters agreed that they were dissatisfied with Obama and the Congress. And they didn’t have a favorable view of either the Democratic or Republican parties. They also were intensely frustrated with the way the federal government is working. And most thought the country was seriously on the wrong track.

But three equal segments of voters picked different top priorities for the next Congress: tackling the budget deficit, spending money to create jobs and cutting taxes. They also differed on whether to extend broad tax cuts enacted under George W. Bush or change the health care overhaul enacted this year.

As politicians embark on their new reality, Americans’ grim reality is unchanged. The crushing remnants of the Great Recession remain. Nearly 15 million Americans are still without work. More than 2 million households are in foreclosure. Bankruptcies are near record levels. And none of it’s showing much sign of abating anytime soon.

The brutal truth is that chances are slim a two-party government would agree on any measures to prod a swift turnaround. Throughout the campaign, each party suggested that it alone had the answer for future prosperity. Republicans argued that Obama’s policies were making times tougher, while Democrats claimed that the GOP would return to the policies that caused the financial meltdown.

As his likely re-election campaign approaches, it may be in Obama’s interests to compromise with the GOP as the Democratic president seeks to win back the center of the electorate he lost favor with in his first two years. Intent on derailing him, Republicans already have signaled they’re likely to fight him at every turn; the GOP is itching to force Obama to veto bills that could create jobs or cut spending.

That’s the recipe for gridlock, standoffs, partisanship.

If Obama and the GOP do reach for consensus, it’s tough to see any issues where they’d be willing to meet in the middle – or that a divided country would be willing to embrace.