It must be magical thinking. The rule is that under poor economic times the voters "throw the bums out" as the old saying goes. But in a two-party system this means that the old bums are voted in. What if they caused or at least contributed to the poor economic times, as is the case in the most recent election debacle?
They don't get punished at all! But that "throwing of the bums out" IS all about punishment. Or if not punishment, then it must be magical thinking.
I've decided on the magical thinking bit. Granted, Obama has squandered opportunity after opportunity, to be friends with the right-wingers. But he still isn't a right-winger. So how could so many voters think that right-wingers would better run an economy to get jobs? Given that they never have bothered about jobs before, and that they immediately started with attacks on abortions and on the teachers' unions?
In any case, the conservative platform is openly about giving more tax cuts to the rich and cutting back on all kinds of public spending, whether it's for the environment or for the payment of civil servants or for new bridges or roads. The idea is that those tax cuts to the rich will make them suddenly excited about creating more jobs and that somehow the fact that fewer people can now afford to buy anything doesn't matter. But those second-level effects are NOT what conservatives desire. That, my friends, is simply for the rich to have much more money and the rest to have so little that pool boys and nannies and personal guards go cheaply.
So why would the average not-so-rich person wish to vote for that? But they have, all over the country.
Magical thinking or sheer stupidity. Or utter hatred of everyone else. Take your pick. I have decided on magical thinking, because there was a time when I played solitaire and decided that if I beat myself in a certain game I'd get an A+ in an exam.