Your Thoughts Exactly

We blogged about the last election? Tomorrow marks the halfway point of the 2nd Bush debacle, and I thought that was enough reason to come back after a 5 month hiatus. In fact, I guess it should be: Remember when we blogged about anything at all? Yes, we're sorry (well, dave isn't), and though I can't promise blogs of the frequency that we once had, I'll at least try to post more than twice a year.

Anyway, tomorrow may usher in the end of the 12 years of Republican Congress, and my first reaction is that it can't come soon enough. I'm cautiously optimistic about the results of the election as well as the results of the elected representatives themselves; but that doesn't mean I'm going to move to Canada if it doesn't happen. The democrat in me doesn't care about which issues are driving people to the polls; or that the incredibly stupid Mark Foley scandal seems to have been what broke the camel's back (not the 500,000 dead in Iraq, or the President's total ineptitude in regards to North Korea, Iran, or the Geneva Convention). It should just be over.

It has to have been tempting for democratic campaign managers to write a slogan that says "Come on, there's no way we can do worse than these guys!" But the conventional wisdom says that that kind of rhetoric doesn't exactly get people excited about voting. You could argue that Kerry ran that kind of campaign and lost. I don't know if that's true- it very well could be. But even with (or maybe because of) that mindset, these elections really seem like they're in the Democratic party's hands. Over the past month, Democrats seem like they're doing their best to throw it away. In that sense, it seems like tomorrow will be a disappointment in at least some regards- the number of close races is more than it was a few weeks ago; and if any of those go to the republicans, it will seem like a missed opportunity- a blown lead in the fourth quarter, if you will.

But this is coming from someone whose last blog was pushing Unity '08 as the way forward for America. something that would get us focused on the real issues, and away from partisanship. Well, I'm not backtracking on that, because I still believe that our priorities are the bigger problem, not the execution. But these '06 elections represent something different- a change of scenery, and an admission that there simply hasn't been enough done with the current government in place. Is that going to be solved with a new Congress?

Almost certainly not. In fact, there may be reason to think that Bush's presidency may become even lamer. But you know what? At this point, Bush needs to be reined in anyway. And you never know, maybe he'll forget to veto their bills as well.

But that's tactical talk. To me, refocusing priorities is what we really need. Both parties are increasingly trying to promise the same thing but with different language; but do we really need a bill that protects our children from the Internet, or do we need universal health care? Do we need a committee hearing on steroids, or environmental and fuel standards? If we actually agreed that public education needed to be fixed, it would get done, regardless of whether democrats or republicans were in office. Instead, they spend time thinking of how they can tell their constituents they voted for more money in schools and how their opponents hate children and babies. Tomorrow may not be the cure, but at least it can be the start, right?