Seems like just yesterday I was getting emails about the 2005 elections. Yet here we are again in a far more important election year. It’s time to start up the campaign machine, so to speak.
The question of the year is simple – who will be in power in 2007? On a national level (I can’t speak for any local elections except those in Colorado), things look grim. Indeed, they look very grim for the Republican AND Democratic Parties. The media, for what it’s worth, says the country is in an anti-incumbent mode this year. I suspect that is relatively correct. The media, for what it’s worth, claims that will devastate the Republicans who are in control of Congress. I suspect that could be possible. While I am not blindly optimistic about the elections this November, I am not running around in terror like some conservatives are this year. An anti-incumbent attitude will hurt the Democrats too.
Neither party has done a good job this session. The Republican majority has fumbled, crashed, and burned their most opportune session in decades. The Republicans had a chance and the numbers to get some real work done on the national level. They lost that chance nearly the minute they got it. I blame Senators McCain, Specter, Graham, Chafee, and various other Republicans for a great deal of the blunder that has occurred this past session. On the other side of the aisle, however, the Democrats have done a nearly equally poor job. Their far left fringe base that controls most of the party’s elected officials is just as angry with their senators as the conservatives are their own senators. Neither party seems to be able to stand up for what their constituents desire. Neither party seems to be able to legislate what they were voted to legislate.
Why, you may ask yourself, has this happened? Why is it that our elected officials on both sides seem to be unable to stand up for what their supporters want? I believe it is because they are listening to the wrong sources. On the Republican side, our elected officials who are not doing what we want them to do are listening to the older media such as newspapers, CBS, ABC, and other sources that are reserved for liberals and old people. Of course, to please The New York Times AND conservatives is impossible. It is easier to please The New York Times, however, because results are seen immediately in the editorials and on the front page. However, in the long run, Republicans will only lose ground if they try to please The New York Times. On the Democratic side, a similar problem exists. Democrats are listening to far left wing pundits such as Air America, the Daily Kos, and Al Gore. Such sources are out of the mainstream of American culture, and thus the Democrats find themselves serving a base that is not quite compatible with American culture (to be absolutely accurate, that base hates Americans, American culture, and even themselves when you get right down to it). They can’t please foaming at the mouth Randi Rhodes and America at the same time.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I believe the problem is at this time with our elected officials on both sides. Will 2006 fix this problem? No. This disconnect with our politicians will only change after we slowly weed out politicians that don’t legislate what we put them in office to do. It will take time and effort, but that is the only solution.
Another fine lesson from Conservative Textbook.
