Your Thoughts Exactly

Wait the Democrats win the House and Senate and we get two blogs in the same week? In fairness, these blogs were two weeks after the fact so we arent being total Democratic homers. Plus, I would not necessairly categorize myself a Democratic homer; in reality as Stu and some commenters have mentioned, I am one of those who was just happy to have the Republicans lose power.

Stuart and I diverge on what we want from the Democratic Congress. Actually let me rephrase that, we differ on what we want from our government in general. What I want is some sort of political and social reformation, akin to the kind that occured in the early 1900s under the Teddy Roosevelt/Woodrow Wilson progressives (times about 10.) Anti-Trust laws, directly elected Senators, and the Women's Suffrage were some of the major changes in the political landscape that we take for granted now; I am ready for the next revolution. Cue the Rage Against the Machine.

I do not see the current Democratic leadership being the winds that blow in change. So what should we demand of the Democrats as leaders of , as those who elected them?
The number one priority for the Democrats as representatives of the people is to re-establish a balance of power by overturning powers given to the executive branch by the Republicans post 9/11. The two main legislative leviathans are the PATRIOT Act and powers of detention, suspension of habeus corpus, and torture tactics thatn have been legitimzed for use against foreign nationals and US citizens that have been deemed terrorists. While Bush will not give up these powers voluntairly, there is a way to force his hand.

We can guess as to what the Bush Administration may have authorized, or known about, in Iraq, in Guantanamo, in who knows where over the last five years, but up until this point, we have been shielded from getting any real information due to the protection of Republican leaders in the House and Senate. Into these powerful leadership positions now come crusty liberals who have been casterated from power by the Republican leadership for the last 12 years. These people are looking for revenge from personal slights and the embarressment of being continually lied to by the Bush Administration. Payback will be a bitch.
The Democrats should have a gameplan for how they go about digging up dirt, to leverage such expositions (which will come,) into getting Bush to agree to roll back executive powers. Start with Guantanamo and Abu Gharib, the two most undemocratic, unamerican symbols of the tyranny of the Bush Administration. Americans, like most human beings, are disgusted by torture; let's try and find out exactly what has been happening and who knew and authorized it. Second, move onto investigating the Energy Task Force. How much did oil play into policy towards Iraq? Did it have anything to do with "sexing up" of pre-war intelligence regarding the possibility of weapons of mass destruction? Once you have fully exposed the current executive branch as devious and oppressive, start focusing on surveilance of American citizens at home. How much is the DOH really up in the average Americans business? Make every American fear the looming spectre of the government. Played correctly, this will either force Bush's hand into comprimising or drum up enough support from Congress to override vetos.

Domestic policy can be shored up by the Democrats by reducing deficits, which will involve raising taxes. Hey I don't like paying taxes either, but I also don't like being in debt. The National Deficit is everyone's combined problem, and it's time we all bit the bullet and started paying it off. Another way to limit the deficit is to keep Bush from blowing all of our cash on wars that go nowhere. Next time he comes and asks for 87 billion dollars, don't give it to him. That we can count on the Democrats to do.

Regardless it should be interesting to see where this all goes. I will be following with interest, ready as ever to be disapointed by the fact that politicians are still politicians.