The Cause of the Discontent

VDH nails it.

...Barack Obama apparently never figured out that he had been elected in part because that massive Republican borrowing had sickened the American people. So in near-suicidal fashion, he took Bush's last scheduled budget deficit of more than $500 billion -- in a Keynesian attempt to get the country out of the 2008 recession and financial panic -- and nearly tripled it by 2010.

The Republicans did NOT lose Congress in 2006 because they were too tightfisted, and McCain did NOT lose because he was too conservative. McCain supported TARP; that was the day his polling began to sunset.

...the public is tired of the nonchalant way that smarmy public officials take credit for dishing out someone else's cash without a thought of paying for it....

And the Boyzzz of Tax-Increase are in trouble, too:

Second, there is a growing sense of despair that even vastly increased income taxes cannot cover the colossal shortfalls. At least the old Clinton tax rates of the 1990s balanced the budget. But should we bring them back, we would still run a deficit of more than $1 trillion in 2011 -- given the vast increases in federal spending.

The meat of the matter is here:

...it does no good for Beltway technocrats to explain how deficits are good at "stimulating" the economy, or why they do not really have to be paid back. Voters know that such gibberish does not apply to their own mortgages and credit card bills.

Voters feel relieved when they can pay off debt and become chronically depressed when they cannot

And it does not get better if you take a chill-pill.

there is real fear that something terrible will soon come from this unsustainable level of spending

.....like the possibility that we will not be able to import petroleum? Clothing?

Who knows??