Americans\u2019 surging political discontent has been years in the making, says Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. The rising unrest, Steele told an audience at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Wednesday (Feb. 3), is a response to those leaders who have failed to listen to the American people.<\/p>\n
Although the leadership in both parties lost sight of what the electorate wanted them to do, Steele said, \u201cThe American people didn\u2019t lose sight of what they wanted and what they expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
From 1994 to 2006, he said, party leaders turned inward and \u201cbecame more concerned with the wheels of government and the consumption of government than \u2026 with productivity and the ability of individuals to do their own thing. This environment has been under way for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, Steele argued, the country experienced two major recent political shifts. In 2007 and 2008, a wave of enthusiasm \u201cunlike anything the country has seen\u201d brought young people out to the polls in record numbers and swept Barack Obama into the White House and Democrats into solid majorities in both houses.<\/p>\n