BEFORE THE TEA PARTY BREAKS BOTH ARMS...

...Patting itself on the back, let me tell you who REALLY decided this election, writ large (See, Iowa generally, Ohio generally , Illinois Senate Seat).

There were basically three tiers of clearly defined voters who acted in numbers this time.  First was the Upper Middle to Middle class folks who cared about nothing but avoiding any additional taxes. They came out in large numbers.  Then there was the working poor who were just pissed off at the party in power.  These two groups are loosely lumped when talking heads sloppily refer to the "tea party" vote.  Most of these people would not self-identify as "TEA party"  They are pissed off all by themselves.  They didn't need any movement to be pissed off.

But the Third Tier is where this election is decided.  That tier is the HCND's.  That stands for "Hopey-Changey Neo-Democrats".  These are the (mostly) first time voters who had to call the doctor in 2008 because they were experiencing an Election lasting more than four hours. They worshipped the ground BHO walked on and were excited to be in the process.  They heard "Houston, this is our time.  This is our moment" and never bothered to ask the questions "Time for What?" and "Who is 'us' ?"  All they knew was they were gonna make history.  Well, been there, done that.  This time, instead of making history, they were history.  Each of their Hopey-Changey little feet found 315 other places to be and they somehow never got around to voting.  They weren't mad.  They weren't even disenchanted.  They were just dillentantes who had moved on to some other new hobby.   It was basically "Why should I vote in this boring, old mid-term.  Nobody's going to Grant Park afterward.  Let's get a movie." 

Some sociologist someday will do a white paper on this being the most perishable political movement in the post modern age.  I will simply, going forward, refer to them as the HCNDs and leave it at that.