(Promoted by jasonrosenbaum - A thought-provoking piece. I'm interested to hear what you all think.)

It was only a year ago that voters seemed to be finally waking up from a long, numb slumber. And yet, in many respects, Dems are already on their heels. This as opposed to Republicans, who were able to hold on to governing majorities in the House and Senate since the ‘94 elections.

Why the difference? There have been arguments that the Dems aren’t moving toward "Change" fast or hard enough, and that if Obama and company were only emboldened and courageous enough to enact sweeping changes to our economy, healthcare and social structures the nation would rally around them and we’d ensure strong, progressive-Democratic governing majorities for a generation. While this is a nice idea and one I also aspire to, I think it’s largely bubkes and rooted more in wishful GroupThink than any actual semblance of voter reality – especially among middle and working class independents who vote not their ideas but their realities.

The truth is that, outside of straight party-line voters, independents and moderates, the people who drive election outcomes in tight races, are people who vote their immediate and near-term economic self-interests. The perennial pollster questions "How do you feel about the economy both now and a year from now" and "Are you better off than you were four years ago / How do you feel about the next four years?" are critical to gauging a voter’s discontent. This we know. But if the Republicans are so bad at governing, are constantly exposed as perpetrators of easy, sleazy and rampant corruption, AND consistently push economic policies that kneel at the alter of mega-corporations and business elites at the expense of everyone else, why are they able to retain governing majorities far longer than Democrats? Well, simply put, Democrats govern.

As noted above, the working assumption has been that immediate and near term economic factors drive most elections. It’s certainly true that House and Senate Republicans enjoyed unprecedented economic growth in both the 1990s and early 2000s. This was not due to their policies per say but of timing. The "great railroads" of the technology revolution really picked up steam in the mid and late ’90’s. Bill Clinton enacted mostly moderate, business-friendly policies that were followed by the Great George Bush Giveaway. Which brings us to now, which is just in time for their failed policies to bear their inevitable bitter fruits (see also: September 2008). It is also just as we elect the most Progressive-Moderate President in multiple generations, and task him with the unfortunate job of restoring a gutted, confusing tax system rigged to benefit the wealthy few, repair numerous national institutions, and deal with two mishandled wars. All the while having to do so with a population that’s been reared on a strong distrust of government – and rightly so given its behavior – since the 1970’s.

So long as this is the case Democrats will have a shorter shelf-life. From the taxpayer perspective it’s simple. On the one hand they feel that Dems stick it to them in the short term with new taxes, programs and projects and thus vote GOP. On the other hand they’ve seen time and again that the GOP will screw them in the long run and thus vote Dem.

The challenge is that because of the nature of the two opposing governing styles, the GOP is able to fester in office for much longer than Dems simply because they keep their heads down on so many bread and butter issues when they are in charge. Ideals aside – most people I know, myself included, want to be left alone. And so long as they are, (again, ideals aside,) they will let those in charge remain in charge. Sure, Republicans hand out welfare checks to elites and corporate interests, but those ramifications don’t immediately affect people’s daily lives as directly as say, healthcare reform, addressing environmental damage or protection, or massive spending on a stimulus package.

It’s no wonder that the GOP can make and keep political gains and governing majorities for much longer than Democrats. They get in, hand out a lot of cash to benefactors – including tax payers with tax cuts (even if 99% of those only go to a wealthy few, being seen as tax cutters is the ultimate takeaway), while they and their cronies get rich and maintain the status quo as long as they can (i.e. until it blows up in their faces like last September).

What can be done? That’s for a much longer post. Suffice it to say here that this is a battle that will be won not on policy alone but by the values that drive them. Unless we start promoting progressive values as an end (quality of life) that guide our means (policy), independent and moderate taxpaying voters will see little more than a bunch of Democrats meddling in their lives, spending their money to build a bigger bureaucracy for someone else’s benefit and continue to vote against it.

Marco Ceglie is a Progressive Messaging Consultant and co-founder of Billionaires For Wealthcare (http://billionairesforwealthcare.com)