So What's New? Not Much.

To say that I'm disappointed by last night's election results is, of course, an understatement.  But as the campaign unfolded, the result became increasingly predictable.  The Democrats did what they do best, they formed a circular firing squad and started shooting.  They have an incumbent President who has a list of pretty impressive accomplishments.  Instead of embracing and promoting those successes, they ran away in fear.  It's rarely a good idea to abandon your most successful vote getter.  Just ask President Al Gore.  

The process didn't just happen over the past year, but since the President's inauguration.  The Democrats allowed the Republicans to write the story.  POTUS was silent and the party structure, office holders and candidates mimicked his behavior.  The Republicans took the opportunity to fill the vacuum with their patented blend of spin, half-truths and outright lies.  So I'm unhappy, but not surprised.  

The story of yesterday was the nearly complete alienation from the Federal Government by the public.  This is part of the long term strategy of the Republican Party.  If the public loses confidence in the the government, it won't mind turning it over to those who advocate dismantling much of it.  How long term is this strategy?  Well, it started with the lie that Social Security won't last and there is nothing that can be done about it.  It continued with the lie that Medicare would run out of money and there is nothing that can be done about it and continued from there.  Those lies go back to Ronald Reagan who famously coined the pronouncement that the scariest sentence in the English language is "We're from the Federal government and we're here to help you." 

The GOP is very good at framing arguments partly because it is largely unencumbered by the truth.  Frank Luntz, a Republican hired gun, has taught his clients well. The Democrats just aren't very good at this as an organization.   Sometimes individual candidates are pretty good at it, but it's fairly random.  To further enhance their chances of controlling the government, the Republicans have been focusing on state government, which is where the action is.  As they took over states they took steps to insure their continued success, so they drew favorable district maps and then enacted voter restriction laws to protect us from in person voter fraud, something that doesn't happen.  As an example, Texas has the most restrictive voter ID law.  But since 2000, out of roughly 21,000,000 votes cast  in Texas there have been exactly 2 documented cases of in person voter fraud.  The judiciary, the appointment of which is the most important power of any President and Senate, has been packed by Bush 41 and 43, because Democrats have tended to give in to Presidential appointment authority, with Robert Bork being the exception that proves the rule, The Republicans have tended to block judicial appointments by Clinton and now Obama. 

So what now?  Until yesterday, the Congress was largely useless.  Now the Republicans will have to actually govern.  Lewis Black famously said, The Republicans are the party of no ideas, while the Democrats are the party of bad ideas."  Now the GOP will have to come with some actual legislation.  And POTUS will have to sign off on them.  As Mitch McConnell said today the President is the most powerful person in the system.  He has the veto pen, although he has only vetoed 2 bills during his Presidency to date.  Just for comparison, Bush 43 vetoed 12, Clinton 36 and Bush 41 vetoed 29.  These numbers don't include pocket vetoes, of which Obama has had none.  His statement today made it quite clear that he's ready to wield the veto more aggressively if need be.  He's also ready to sign off on reasonable compromises like the bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed the Senate but couldn't get past the Hastert rule in the House.

There will be important areas that won't get the attention they deserve and some areas that will get too much attention and will meet with the veto pen.  Things don't have to remain like this.  There are  Congressional and Presidential elections in 2016, and state elections in both 2015 and 2016.  Get involved and help turn your state to your views.  Howard Dean said that the best thing anyone can do to help promote her/his views is to run for office, town council, state assembly, anything.  Failing that volunteer  and give money.  

The Daily Show talked about the real winner yesterday, money. Click the link to see it, and apologies for the damn ad.  According to the numbers I've seen, the aggregate expenditure for the 2014 mid-term for the parties and their various committees and normal PAC's was an obscene $3 billion.  The overall total, including Super PAC's, and other contributions, including dark money, those anonymous funds enabled by the SCOTUS, will be about $6.5 billion.  It's a number that boggles the mind.  The Presidential in 2016 is on line to garner some multiple of that $6.5 billion.  This is disgusting and as Americans we should all be outraged and committed to finding a way to stop it.

Let me finish with the bright spot.  In many countries, an election like yesterday or any Presidential that changed the party in power would result in rioting in the streets and even lead to civil war.  In the United States, we have enough confidence in our system to understand that we can make change and tolerate opposition rule.  We live under the rule of law.  In spite of its weaknesses and problems, the United States of America is remarkably stable.