ANOTHER COUPLE OF EXPLANATIONS OF THE OFF-YEAR ELECTION CYCLE.

ANOTHER COUPLE OF EXPLANATIONS OF THE OFF-YEAR ELECTION CYCLE. Kids, we discussed the off-year election cycle at the dinner table on occasion. I remember my father saying that he had always thought that there was a percentage of voters who were always dissatisfied, so that if they voted for a President, they would vote against his party two years later. I think of this theory every election, but I still don’t have an opinion on it. I do think another theory has applied in recent elections. Polls show that voters like their own Congressman, but have a very low opinion of Congress. To the extent that the minority party succeeds in framing the issue as being a vote on Congress as an institution rather than as a vote on individuals, it will do well, almost as a matter of arithmetic.