The American voters got to prove that government by the people means that the government of the people had better not take those peoples’ actual concerns for granted, that no political alignment is permanent and that character still counts. There’s much to be thankful for in that.
House Republicans get at least a couple years off to reflect upon what it is that people who can be persuaded to vote for them want in at least a nominally conservative party. Hint: It’s not power-at-any-price careerism, nolo me tangere elitism, or spend it like it’s on fire populism (light). Whether they use the time wisely is something that a number of freshman Democrats in usually conservative districts will discover in two years’ time.
House Democrats get a chance to prove that they can too be a serious voice in the nation’s governance. It’s interesting that they earned that chance by winning battleground seats with centrist, even conservative Democratic candidates. How well those people adhere to the campaign promises they made versus the siren song of the perpetually dissatisfied “netroots” types and their appointed standard bearers will be interesting to watch. Here’s a hint for them: Going nuts is a little bit like getting pregnant: You either are or you aren’t, and before too long it shows.
Parenthetically, the fact that Joe Lieberman won his race against an Anointed One in Connecticut is something of a turd in the punchbowl for the committed hyper-partisans on the left, but there are some lessons in there too, for those who understand: In order to lead from the front, you must first win in the middle. On the other hand, NPR broadcast yesterday that voters who called the economy the most important issue broke for Democrats by a two-to-one margin. The only way to make sense of that in a time of 4% unemployment, low interest rates and record stock prices is to acknowledge that there is still gas left in the engine of class warfare. After all, if your plan is to rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul’s support.
The President can hardly be seen as a winner here – this is clearly a rebuke. He can with reason point to the customary hits a two-term president takes in his second mid-term election, but I hope he doesn’t ride that one all the way to the barn – as a people we do not much go in for the idea of losing wars, but we’ve taken at least a half-step in that direction.
The President also gets to demonstrate whether he still has the ability to reach across the political aisle as he did so famously as a governor in Texas. If he chooses the path of bipartisanship it’ll be interesting to see whether or not there’s anyone there to take that profferred hand. Some people might think there is more benefit in confrontation. Some people always do. On the other hand, sub-committee investigations and subpoenas can be so much more exciting. Just think of all the TV time.
I don’t know whether Rumsfeld is a casualty in this process, or whether he’s clearing some maneuver space between now and the new Congress’ swearing-in – two months is forever in terms of modern attention spans, and the man is a matchless bureaucratic infighter. Don’t get in front of Skippy-san though – you might get injured while he’s doing his back flips.
Hillary Clinton scored two wins, easily maintaining her senate seat even as the junior senator from Massachusetts – a prospective competitor for the 2008 Democratic primary race – shattered the hull of his ambitions on the shoals of comedic nuance.
Can’t the terrorists claim a victory too? After all, 103 American deaths in the Ramadan month October kept the suppurating wound that is Iraq forefront on the pre-election pages and monitors of our national press. If this election was at least partly a referendum on the administration’s conduct of the war, then it’s pretty clear that by escalating the butchery our enemies got to cast a few absentee ballots of their own.
On the other hand, the people of Iraq might be potential winners too, but a great deal depends upon the choices they collectively make: The American people have now spoken on the subject of their patience and its limitations, but they’re not done talking yet. If Bagdhad and al Anbar residents are still engaged in petulant spasms of tit-for-tat self-murder – and coalition soldiers are still dying trying stop them – the odds are pretty good that shortly after the 2008 elections we’ll be quickly about the process of packing our bags and getting out of their way, good idea or no.
There’s no doubt that the thugs, murderers and terrorists all believe they’ll come out on top in the inevitable bloodbath that ensues. They question the average Iraqi will have to ask himself is what form of contribution they will be called upon to make for the mound of skulls.
As always, you are more reasoned and balanced than I. I seem to be going through that stages of grief thing…I’m past the denial stage now, and well into rage. I’m thinking it might be quite a while before I move on to whatever the next stage is.
Speaker Pelosi. blech.
Kristen
EXACTLY why I hang around … reasoned and balanced, despite being one of those “right wing” types.
Just a joke, Lex, just a joke, honest! The latter part, that is, not the former
It’s a sad day in America, but it could’ve been worse. In 1992 the Dems had Congress, the Presedency, & the Supreme Court(@ least the Justices, in general followed a more liberal line of thought). Anyway Hill & Bill managed to gee that up with a failed attempt to socialize health care. Hopefully, in two years the voters should get enough Democratic politics to bring back some unpleasant memories, you know, kind of how a semi concious football player snaps back to reality once the smelling salts are brought out. IMO the Republicans needed to stay with the policy’s that got them elected, I.E., lower taxes & cut spending ( well they got it half right), get tough on border security, thankfully the House Republicans saw the light, those in the Senate, not so much, “W” I’ll never understand why he went soft on that. Aren’t we a nation of laws, why would/should we reward illeigal activty with US Citizenship? Actually, Newt Gangrich, has a pretty good idea on solving that problem. “W”’s right on the War on terrorism & he needs to stick to it, he’ll need a lot of luck to pull that off with the “help” he’ll get from Pelosi & Dingy Harry, oops, sorry, Senator Reid. I heard that Pelosi wants to restore civility to our national politics, isn’t that special. Maybe then, if she takes her words to heart, along with a few others in her party she’ll resign, it would be a great service to her country. The DEMS got no plan for Iraq and for that matter no viable plan for anything else, I wrote them off as a party I could support a long time ago, obviously not everybody else has
“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.” (S. J. Harris)
“I wrote them off as a party I could support a long time ago, obviously not everybody else has”
“Kristen Says:
November 8th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
As always, you are more reasoned and balanced than I. I seem to be going through that stages of grief thing?
“I wrote them off as a party I could support a long time ago, obviously not everybody else has”
“Kristen Says:
November 8th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
As always, you are more reasoned and balanced than I. I seem to be going through that stages of grief thing…I’m past the denial stage now, and well into rage. I’m thinking it might be quite a while before I move on to whatever the next stage is.”
Speaker Pelosi. blech.
Well spoken Capt.
Personally I am Disgusted,Dismayed and Distressed at the influence of The MSM over the Hearts and Minds of the Sheeple.
“Personally I am Disgusted,Dismayed and Distressed at the influence of The MSM over the Hearts and Minds of the Sheeple.”
You don’t seem to give the American people enough credit to make up their own minds without the “influence” of the MSM.
They saw 12 years of Republican control that became bloated and drunk with power, a la DeLay, Abramoff, Ney, Burns, etc., and out of control spending and nary a vetoed spending bill. Not one. From the self-proclaimed party of fiscal repsonsibility.
Sure 4% unemployment is better than 5 or 6%, but it does it make that much of a difference to the person who already has a job, albeit only making minimum wage and no health care benefits, the same minimum wage that’s $5.15 an hour and hasn’t changed since, what, 1997?
That same person probably doesn’t have much of a stock portfolio at that minimum wage job that record NYSE & NASDAQ levels would have much of an effect on anyway.
Maybe the president really can become bipartisan like he was when he was governor. I hope he does. We’ll all benefit.
40 some-odd years of Democratic control of Congress set up the Contract with America revolution in 1994. Maybe an occasional revolution is a neccessary thing?
Reasoned and cool piece. Usual. I see it as an opportunity the way you do Lex. Sort of a wake up call afore the 4th quarter, ala 2008.
However re- “If he chooses the path of bipartisanship”
Poor GW is down to a stump, with each chunk of finger, wrist and arm they’ve mauled everytime he’s “reached out” over the past 6 years. Think about that suggestion just a little more. I say he’s just got to act temperate and professional with ‘em. They’ll crack and show.
Remember all, he has the big “V” pen. Last I saw he was still CinC. Hell it’s almost a relief to this dumbo citizen, that I can rest assured no new laws will be passed the next two years! Ahhhhhh.
Of course, to ensure the future of the US and his own legacy all GW has to do is finish this thing in Iraq…I know that is easier said than done, but for all the reasons you mentioned above and more, the DIMs have unwittingly joined the coalition of the willing. Regardless of what Skippy, Moore OR Cindi Crawford has to say!
B2
That raise in the minimum wage that so many are supporting will be a death knell for some small businesses.
I have to agree with Kristen, unkawill, and Mark regarding the gullibility of the American public, and have been disgusted and embarrassed all day. B2 is on the money regarding the reaction to any “reaching out” by Pres. Bush. Now that the Dems have finally won something, maybe they’ll be a bit more amenable to it, but I won’t hold my breath.
Lex, I don’t know how you manage to be so cool & calm sounding, being so “right wing” and all…
We shall see how the Persians play all this…
I guess I view this as all just part of our country’s political cycle. Complacency is not a good thing. Am I happy with the outcome? Not particularly, but we’re a big country and we’ll weather what’s coming next as we have weathered far worse. It is time for the Republicans to dig deep to find good candidates for the next go round, candidates who really speak to the people. It will happen. It has happened before…
I’m afraid that there will be no such thing as bi-partisanship in the coming days. If GW thinks that Pelosi et al will be satisfied with Rumsfeld’s head on a platter, he has another think coming. I suspect it will be like blood in the water to a school of sharks. One good thing though….maybe, just maybe, GW will learn where the Veto pen is and figure out how to use it.
Just remember…gridlock is good….gridlock is good…gridlock is good…
We use to switch fairly regularly in this country between Liberal and Conservative (our equivalent of Dems and Pubs). Then we stayed Liberal for a long long time until……Liberal minority. Now Conservative minority. With the current Conservative minority – I don’t like them, I hope they leave soon.
But my point is I have to agree with Bou, its cyclical. People get upset with the way things are going, they switch. Later they switch back. Not the best time to switch, perhaps, given what’s going on in Iraq but – it does give political parties time to rebuild, to come back from the “political wildnerness”, which is where the political pundits said we once sent the Conservative party. They went from being the gov’t to holding only two seats in Parliament. Not that many years later, in the grand scheme of things, the “new and improved” version is the gov’t of the day…almost.
They saw 12 years of Republican control that became bloated and drunk with power,…
And many, if not most, saw it through the biased lens of disaffected Dem journalists. The only fair thing will be if the media uses the same set of standards they used on the Reps as they report on the activities of the Dems. History indicates that they won’t, but history cannot account for the emergence of the internet as an alternative source.
True enough with the Internets as being an alternative source. It’ll be interesting to say the least as to what the Demorats do now with more scrutiny.
And the whole cyclical thing, what goes around comes around. That’s what makes our country what it is. Tired of your leadership? Throw them out every 2-4-6 years. Your party gets tossed out of power? Switch your game plan, change course. Find out what people want and then give it to them.
This transition of power doesn’t happen in too many other countries. Other countries don’t trust their people enough to give them that sort of leverage.
Web Reconnaissance for 11/08/2006…
A short recon of what?
Web Reconnaissance for 11/08/2006…
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention….
The only way to make sense of that in a time of 4% unemployment, low interest rates and record stock prices is to acknowledge that there is still gas left in the engine of class warfare.
Consider that someone who had a factory job at $25/hr, lost it, and is now working at a $12/hr job is not on the unemployed rolls but does not exactly have a favorable view of the economy. He or she likely does not hold any stocks and doesn’t give a damn what interest rates are because they’re already in hock up to their necks and don’t want to have to borrow any more money.
Plus, many of us who have good jobs are afraid of what would happen if we lose them. If a company outsources a bunch of jobs to India, it’s stock will probably go up, but that doesn’t help the people who now have to go out and get McJobs.
Not American but as an observer MHO is if you’re angry or disgusted you have far too much invested in party politics.
And the whole cyclical thing, what goes around comes around. That?
And the whole cyclical thing, what goes around comes around. That’s what makes our country what it is.
Yep! It’s a feature, not a bug, and it’s good that we (and our legislators) are being reminded of that.
I’m still concerned that the defeated GOP is going to spend more time looking for somewhere to point the finger of blame than spending some much needed time looking in the mirror, though.