I think you either give voters too much or too little credit. It is hard to tell.
All I know is that when the economy DID hit the fan in September 2008, the left saw Obama's victory as inevitable (which it was) and thought this was a "transformative" moment where we would shake away the Reagan-era and enter a new New Deal. Time ran the cover "Franklin Delano Obama" with the president-elect's face superimposed on FDR's. Carvill published "40 More Years" and everyone thought we were in a great political shift due to facing the abyss of another Depression.
Two years later the GOP won in historic numbers running on a campaign that called modest HCR "socialism" and made most voters think FDR-style governance leads to Death Panels. Now, seeing Paul Ryan's plan and some ridiculous state measures that have more to do with ideology than austerity measures (busting unions despite getting the cuts, firing thousands of state employees and cutting services to avoid a 1 cent sales tax, etc. etc.) is leading to another huge shift.
Voters aren't moving towards libertarianism or retro-progresvissm. They just are pissed about the economy, the wars and the partisanship so they go with whoever lost the last election every 2-4 years these days.
