The Beltway is Out of Touch with Voters

Charlie Cook stumbles on something while watching a focus group of so-called "Walmart Moms":

The first thing that jumped out of the focus group sessions was how out of sync the political debate in Washington and on the cable food-fight shows is from the daily lives of these women. In various ways, we heard each one of them talk about the struggles they face in putting food on the table, clothes on their kids' backs and a roof over their heads. One woman talked about making lunch for her son because they couldn't afford a school lunch. I lost count of the number who, with their kids, had moved into the homes of their parents, in some cases because they had lost their homes.

This graf pretty well sums up why the Democrats are in a tough spot at present: A great many -- too many -- Americans are struggling economically, just hoping to keep their children fed, let alone keep their houses. And all too often what voters are hearing from Washington is not talk of solutions, simple or not, but Beltway talk. When that's all that these voters hear, they take the natural step of throwing out those in power.

But this graf also contains a real warning sign for the Republicans as well. Much of the current crop of GOP candidates -- particularly those emerging from the Tea Party, but also those establishment Republicans reacting to it (think Mark Kirk in Illinois, for example) -- seem intent on speaking out issues of little to not salience with voters: amending the Constitution to override previous amendments, eliminating major governmental agencies (like the Department of Education) and privatizing major programs (like Social Security and Medicare), and the like. While voters may be unhappy with the chatter out of Washington, if what they're hearing from the opposition is no better, they aren't going to run to the polls to put the new guys in.