Be Careful What You Wish For
Most of my life, I have been a liberal Democrat. In other words, I’ve been rooting for the underdogs.
By the time I came to be of voting age — 1988 to be exact — “liberal” had become a pejorative and the Democratic party was on the downswing. Frankly, the Democratic party hasn’t had a lot to crow about in a long, long time. Even when Clinton broke the Democrats’ presidential losing streak, there wasn’t much to cheer about. He started off with a shaky presidency, and by the time he got his act together the Democrats lost control of the House — and then Clinton got caught with his pants down. Literally.
Now the Democrats have won a resounding victory in Congress. I mean, they’ve not only given the Republicans a bloody nose but have also kicked them between the uprights and taken their lunch money. Had this happened 10 or 15 years ago I’d've been ecstatic. Not today.
Why? Because I no longer see “the other side” as the enemy. The Republican party has its virtues, having produced some fine leaders such as John McCain, a man capable of working in a truly bi-partisan way. Moreover, the Democratic party can be just as dirty and ugly as the GOP. It’s just harder to see because they’ve been the underdog for so long.
The real lesson of this election is not that “Republicans suck,” as some might have us believe. The real lesson is: “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
The Republicans wanted total control over the federal government. They pretty much got it by winning the presidency and a majority in both houses of Congress. It is fair to say that as a collective, they were pretty damned smug about it. Conservative pundits crowed about the death of liberalism and the Democratic party.
Then reality came crashing down on all of them.
With nearly total control of the federal government, Republicans had to stand and deliver on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts.
They failed. Miserably. The deficit has ballooned. We’ve made no progress on social security or immigration reform. The Medicaid prescription drug benefit was a costly boondoggle. The war on terror has gone badly: we’re losing ground in Afghanistan; Iran and North Korea are going nuclear; and our forces are tied down in an unnecessary war in Iraq. Mark Foley’s immoral behavior gave a black eye to a party that was insufferably preachy about morality.
So much for the inherent superiority of conservatism and the Republican Party. The Republicans knew how to achieve power, but had no earthly idea what to do with it. In receiving their wish, the Republicans found their downfall.
If the Democrats continue with this momentum and win the presidency in 2008, it will be their turn to stand and deliver. And they had damned well better, or the voters will smack them down as hard as they smacked down the Republicans.
Then it will be the Democrats turn to regret that their wish was granted.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Maybe a divided government is the best way to keep one party from getting too corrupt. The Democrats deserved their defeat in 1994 and I’d be hard pressed to come up with any reason why the Republicans didn’t deserve theirs yesterday.
Already Rumsfield is gone so some good has come of it.
November 9th, 2006 at 2:56 am
GAH! Bill Mulligan returns! This restraining order isn’t worth the paper it’s written on!
I’m kidding, of course.
George Will agrees with you about the value of a divided government. I find its value to be a bit more dubious. There are times when we need to come together in order to resolve great problems — like the war in Iraq. I wonder if we’ve lost the ability.
It’s been said, however, that if the Dems want a shot at the presidency in ‘08 they can’t risk looking like obstructionists. The same may hold true for the GOP. I hope they all recognize that and start trying to find sensible compromises, rather than allowing our country to remain at horse latitudes while we continue to lose ground in the war on terror.
November 9th, 2006 at 4:44 am
I think part of the problem is that there is really little difference between the Democrats and Republicans in most cases. The Dems have been out of power for so long that they’ve went so far to the right that it’s hard to tell a Democrat from a Republican most days. They may fight and hate each other, but sometimes I can’t tell the difference.
November 9th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
I’ve been all for a split government since way back. I stated back when that I was only voting for Kerry because I wanted the two parties to yank each other back towards the middle. Yesterday was half a dream come true.
Now we have to wait and see what the Democrats do. Are they going to be smart and play the game as centrists or are they going to go overboard and alienate many of the people that put them in power?
See, I’d like to say that people voted for the Democrats and for what they represent. I don’t think that they did. This election was about voting against Bush and voting against the party that has supported him for the last six years. I’m already seeing a faster buyers remorse from people then with Bush after ‘06 as they sober up and realize just who the Speaker and the Majority Leader will be.
The Dems are going to have to work hard to not act like power mad twits in the next two years. ‘08 will come really fast and there will be other seats up for grabs and no Bush to vote against. Whether they do what’s right or whether they play to the far left of their party in the next fourteen months will weigh heavily in getting people to decide to vote for them on the next few election cycles rather then against them. And they have to do it against a party that has become far more skilled then they at organizing and creating a message and getting into the public conscious through the echo chamber.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing them go back OUT of power in the House and Senate by only a small margin while having the Presidency go Democrat. That has always seemed to me to be a good formula.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:38 am
The secret to our form of government working together is just that-working together. For so long now, the GOP and the Democrats have been at each others’ throats in some sort of pseudo-Vince McMahon event that all people have seen lately is US against THEM. I mean, one of the recurring themes in elections the last few times has been “I’m a Republican and we’re strong because the Democrats don’t have a vision.” Now, the way I saw it, and still do, the Republicans have a vision. It’s only a problem when one of them decides to step out from behind the Forum on the Family, Dr. Dobson-approved Message that things start to get ugly. Democrats DON’T seem to have one unifying vision, but that’s all right, because when all you see is the Vision, you can lose sight of everything else. It’s good to have a lot of viewpoints at the table. It’s also good to be willing to not just listen to them, but HEAR them, and I hope that’s what starts to happen in DC.
One problem I can already foresee for the Democrats in Congress is some of the more short-sighted people saying that they’re not getting anything done if they concentrate too much on repairing things in DC and in our standing in the world. I hope, I really hope, that there’s someone wise enough to pull out the old signs they had on the streets in Manhattan. “Dig we must for a greater New York.” Well, it’s time to place a bet with Hercules to muck out the stables of Washington with the waters of the Potomac, or maybe a few cases of Deer Park, whichever’s cleaner. I don’t think I’m alone in not fully trusting this government. It’s kind of a “Smack me upside the head once, shame on you, twice, shame on me” kind of thing.
I hope they realize just what they have to do.
As far as divided government, I thought that’s what the whole checks and balances thing was supposed to be for. I guess that works well in high school classes, not so well in real life. We all need to make sure our represnetatives are actually, you know, representing us.