Three Cheers for Pragmatic Government Activism on Election Day

(PHOTO: Terry McAuliffe celebrates his win for Virginia governor, Washington Post).

Some political pundits are shamelessly trying to claim Virginia's governor race, in which the pro-Obamacare Terry McAuliffe beat the anti-Obamacare Ken Cuccinelli, as evidence that the Affordable Care Act cost McAuliffe a larger margin of victory. Needless to say, this analysis ignores the simple fact that McAuliffe ultimately won -- in a state that, four years ago, voted for a Republican governor and voted for the GOP candidate for President in every presidential election from 1964 to 2004. Never mind that this evidence pundits present is not based in reality; there is certainly no basis for it in the polling. Instead, if there is anything that Tuesday's election results show us, it is that pragmatic government activism -- elected officials of both parties coming together to use the levers of government to materially improve people's live -- is politically popular and wins elections. 

Terry McAuliffe run unabashedly on expanding Medicaid in the state as part of the Affordable Care Act. It was the most prominent issue that he emphasized in his gubernatorial campaign. The day after his victory, he told reporters he thinks it was the capstone policy debate of the election and that he had a mandate to pursue it. Public opinion polling shows the Medicaid expansion is actually extremely popular in Virginia. It is also very popular in New Jersey, where Governor Chris Christie was reelected on Tuesday. Christie, unlike some Republican governors, accepted the Medicaid expansion - a decision that helped establish his ostensibly moderate bona fides, though he is no moderate. Further, with nearly 90 percent of New Jersey voters giving Christie high marks for his response to Hurricane Sandy, it is clear that Sandy and Christie's perceived strong response to it politically benefited him in his run for reelection. Voters saw a politician working with a member of the other party, President Obama, to address the problems of a natural disaster and use the power of government to help the victims of the natural disaster. Much like the popularity of the Medicaid expansion, this is a case of government activism being popular with voters. Lastly, in New York City, voters, by a gargantuan 50-point margin, made progressive hero Bill de Blasio their next mayor. De Blasio ran centrally on raising taxes on the wealthy -- an extremely popular idea, both nationally and in the city. Indeed, voters like the idea of government asking the wealthy to pay their fair share to help finance critical safety net programs and other government operations that are also, by the way, broadly well-liked, both in New York and nationally. So, in the end, the results from Tuesday are far from any kind of rebuke of Obamacare. Instead, they are an embrace of government activism. Government can craft effective public policy that helps improve people's lives and, time and again, this has proven to be popular with voters. EJ Dionne makes a stronger case than I could make right here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-america-shifts-left/2013/11/06/2119e06e-470e-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html