As America barrels toward Election Day 2010 (It's tomorrow, remember to vote!), there is a great deal of uncertainty in the air. Rarely have midterm elections carried so much weight, especially given the state of the economy and the widespread dissatisfaction with the Democratic reign of the last two years.  Republicans have ratcheted up their rhetoric in hopes of taking back control of at least the House of Representatives and potentially the Senate.

While it remains to be seen how successful they will be at the polls, the GOP seems already to have persuaded a wide swath of anxious voters that it will spearhead a populist charge against the “elites” at the top of our economic pyramid—namely the banks, energy companies, insurance giants, and other special interests. At the same time, Tea Party candidates are the undisputed wild card in this election; November 2^nd will be a referendum on their influence in American politics and will likely determine whether or not they are here to stay as a new bastion of influence on the Right.

So for the typical politically apathetic Dartmouth student, here’s a rundown of what you need to know headed into the most important midterm elections in recent memory.

On the Defensive

We’ll start with the Democrats… A vexing bunch, I must admit. As a registered Democrat and TDI’s resident outspoken liberal, I have watched from the sidelines with frustration as the Democrats have stood spinelessly and taken punches from Republicans time and time again over the last two years. Though expectations for President Obama were set ridiculously high, he has failed to fashion a compelling narrative out of his policies or to deliver on his promises of a revitalized America.

Given the situation, it was inevitable that Americans would be disappointed: how could one man solve the myriad, complex problems facing our nation?  

It is easy to forget the circumstances under which Obama took office. Facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, he took the difficult and necessary steps to pull our country back from the brink. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package) was the first of these important measures. Let us not also forget that the Democrats succeeded in passing legislation regarding healthcare, financial and credit card reform, each of which would have been no small feat alone. The Race to the Top education program, which provides competitive grants to encourage and reward states that are creating conditions for education, has also met widespread approval due to its impact on the American public school system.

However, a confluence of the relentless misinformation campaign engineered by the Republicans and the White House’s baffling inability to trumpet its own achievements have left the Democrats behind in the polls and facing the possibility of worse congressional gridlock in the second half of Obama’s presidency.

Their strategy was on full display at Dartmouth on October 21^st at a rally held in Silsby 28 for New Hampshire Democrats Ann McLane Kuster and Paul Hodes. Both candidates, along with special guest David Plouffe, the engineer of Obama’s successful presidential campaign in 2008, emphasized the same ideas: that a Republican victory in 2010 will signify a return to the failed policies of the Bush years, such as tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation of the financial sector and big business in general. All three realize that Obama was elected on the strength of the votes of our generation and are desperate to recapture the magic of 2008; they know their election hopes rest mostly on voter turnout. At this point, Democrats can only hope that one last-ditch push to make up for their ineptitude in the last two years can help them avoid a Republican sweep.

Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition

The GOP has spent the last two years licking its wounds from the 2008 election and gearing up to challenge Democratic incumbents in the House and Senate. However, it would be wrong to say that the Republicans are really fighting the Democrats for control of either body in this election because they have somehow managed to dominate political action in both houses for the last two years, despite the Democrats’ supermajority, simply by refusing to cross partisan lines.

The G.O.P. has come a long way from its crushing defeat in 2008, when the party suffered losses so severe that many political analysts began to question whether the Republicans were finished as an effective political entity. How quickly the tables have turned! They have operated as a determined and cohesive bloc within Congress, forcing the Democrats to resort to such crude measures as reconciliation to pass something so obviously beneficial as healthcare reform. Led by the likes of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, who is likely to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Republicans have resorted to Orwellian tactics in convincing the public that they will stand up to the “elite” interests—which happen to be their biggest benefactors.

Their strategy is never difficult to figure out: Republicans are always willing to do whatever it takes to gain and retain power, whether it is turning money into votes or ideology into law. We must only look as far as Rupert Murdoch, founder, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, to find an example. While it has always been a conservative enterprise, Mr. Murdoch has lately dropped his charade of running Fox News as a “fair and balanced” information outlet and has instead put all of the likely Republican presidential candidates for 2012 on his Fox News payroll. In addition, he has directly donated $1million to the Republican Governors Association for the upcoming election. Conservative-leaning organizations have been consistently outspending left-leaning groups on a weekly basis in the run-up to the election.

If Republicans do in fact take back control of one or both houses of Congress, expect to see a reinstitution of the Bush tax policy, attempts to roll back healthcare and financial regulatory reform. In short, be on the lookout for implementation of the Republican “Pledge to America.” Should the Republicans be successful on November 2^nd, they will have the solidarity and shamelessness of their party to thank.

The Natives Are Restless

And last, but perhaps not least: the Tea Party. The latest incarnation of raging American populism has been on the scene for a little over a year now and continues to make waves with its aggressively libertarian views. Triggered initially by bank bailouts orchestrated by the Bush and Obama administrations, the Tea Party “platform” screams for a simultaneous reduction in both taxes and the federal budget deficit. In general, Tea Partiers feel that Wall Street has Washington’s ear and that nobody in the nation’s capital is listening to the people on “Main Street.” As such, they advocate for a dramatic reduction in the size of the government.

Tea Party fervor really got its start from CNBC Business News editor Rick Santelli, who in a February 2009 viral video rant suggested that traders in Chicago hold a rally and dump derivatives into the Chicago River in response to President Obama’s mortgage refinance plan.

Though we have no reliable demographic estimate of the Tea Party’s composition, Tea Partiers are thought to be mostly white, conservative and over the age of 45. They are typically wealthier and more educated than the average American and tend to identify more as Republicans than Democrats. The Tea Party is extremely socially conservative: it supports immigration reform in the vein of Arizona’s controversial enforcement law and opposes same-sex marriage. It does not endorse climate change as a legitimate natural phenomenon and has moved to support Proposition 23 in California, which would roll back the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

Taking strict constructionism to an unprecedented level, Tea Partiers insist on rigid adherence to the Constitution. Thus, they abhor Medicare, Social Security and the healthcare reform legislation passed by the Obama administration, along with government bureaus like the Department of Education that are not explicitly outlined by the law of the land. The Tea Party has widely been discredited in the mainstream American media due to the outlandish nature of the candidates that it endorses, namely Kentucky senate candidate Rand Paul, Delaware senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, Nevada senate candidate Sharron Angle, and New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. From Paladino’s homophobic speech two weeks ago to Rand Paul’s questioning of the Civil Rights Acts, the Tea Party has not oriented itself to appeal to a broad base of voters. For better or worse, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has benefitted tremendously from the rise of this faction and must be considered its focal figure. However, what clout the Tea Party will wield on Election Day remains to be seen.

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So heading toward Election Day, here are some questions to keep in mind:

Is the Tea Party just a fringe movement? Or does it have a legitimate stake in American politics?

Will the Democrats salvage a draw in this election?

Can the Republicans regain control of Congress?

We’ll find out on Tuesday.