When a person lives any length of time in Nebraska, if they're any sort of observant individual, there are a few things they'll likely pick up on.
For example, Nebraskans tend to wear a lot of red. Especially on days that a Husker football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, or other team has a game or match - which pretty much means Nebraskans wear red most of the time.
Nebraskans also tend to be proud of their state capitol building, with the statue on the top named "The Sower". For those of you unfamiliar with Nebraska, The Sower is a massive bronze statue of a man sowing - or planting - the seeds of the future. Like any farmer, when those seeds have grown into crops, and are fully mature, they'll need to be harvested. If a farmer sows seeds that are filled with weeds and bad seed, they'll likely reap crops filled with weeds and rot.
Sadly, it appears many Republicans, both in Nebraska and around the country - including U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, the former governor of Nebraska - have yet to learn that simple lesson: that you reap what you sow.
If Senator Johanns had better recall of his Nebraska roots, he might have been more prepared for what he encountered at his town hall meeting on Monday, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln. To say that his constituents were unhappy would be a bit of an understatement. From a source we had at the event, it wasn't just Democrats, liberals or progressives that were calling for taxes to be raised on the rich - some Republicans were also behind that idea. Sadly, Johanns not only openly opposed that idea, but he made things worse by sowing more lies about GOP plans for Social Security.
Senator Johanns' friend, Sen. John McCain didn't fare much better halfway across the nation in Arizona.
Americans across the country are beginning to comprehend the effects of the bitter seed Republicans have sown all over the nation.
In the latest CNN poll, released on Tuesday, for the first time in history Americans don't believe their elected representatives in Washington deserve re-election. On fact, only 41 percent of Americans think their U.S. House member deserves another term.
The numbers are far worse for Republicans than Democrats.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans disapprove of the Republican party, nearly two out of every three U.S. citizens. At the same time, while 47 percent of Americans disapprove of the Democratic Party, an equal 47 percent approve of Democrats in Congress. Compared to Republicans, that's a 14-point lean by Americans towards the Democratic Party, and away from Republicans.
Tea Party candidates have only harvested growing distain from the people they purport to represent. Only 31 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party, continuing the downward slide of opinion- one of the worst showings since Tea Party numbers started to be measured about 18 months ago.
The results of some the recall elections in Wisconsin last night only further prove our point. [The results of at least one race in Wisconsin can't be trusted as honest - though it appears that Wisconsin Democrats have caved and won't be contesting the results, as they should.]
While many of these numbers seem to have surprised more than a few pundits, we're not surprised at all about the way the pendulum is now swinging back towards the political left.
Instead of making the hard choices, and fighting to conserve those things which have been good about our government - which is what being conservative truly is - the Republican party over the last decade has continually reached for candidates and actions that have merely gained them attention. Whether that attention has been positive or not hasn't seemed to concern the GOP. They've sown the seeds of anger, hatred, ignorance, and arrogance indiscriminately.
It appears, heading toward 2012, the American political right may now be about to reap the fruits of their actions.
