It seems the pundits and pollsters pegged this election about right. The GOP swept into power in the House and reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate to near a bare minimum. Republicans also took control of a majority of governorships. So, as some progressives predicted, has the world as we know it come to an end?
I don't know about you, but today doesn't seem that much different from yesterday. The sun came up about the same time and people are going about their routine lives. It's the same old same old.
Aah, I hear some of you say. It may not seem so different now, but just you wait two months or so, then you'll see.
See what?
When the Democrats swept into office in 2008, the buzz was that things would be different now. They would jettison all the excesses of the Bush administration. Science would trump politics. We would bring our troops home. Health care would be dramatically reformed. A new day was dawning. Hope would be turned into reality.
How's that working out? All these dramatic changes we were promised never panned out. Obama continued much of Bush's wiretapping follies and did not shutdown Guantanamo. Politics continues to trump science. Instead of bringing most of our troops home, we simply moved a good number of them to a different theater. The health care bill that passed was an embarrassment and Democrats have been no friends to labor, the environment or the millions of people being fraudulently thrown out of their homes.
Alas, the new day never dawned.
So, excuse me if I don't buy into the opposite scenario -- imminent doom. While I have no doubt the Republican-controlled House will pass some horrid legislation, that only represents one-third of the equation. If some of these draconian measures become the law of the land, then the fault still will lie with the Democrats, not the Republicans, since the former still controls 2/3 of the federal power structure.
I don't know about you, but today doesn't seem that much different from yesterday. The sun came up about the same time and people are going about their routine lives. It's the same old same old.
Aah, I hear some of you say. It may not seem so different now, but just you wait two months or so, then you'll see.
See what?
When the Democrats swept into office in 2008, the buzz was that things would be different now. They would jettison all the excesses of the Bush administration. Science would trump politics. We would bring our troops home. Health care would be dramatically reformed. A new day was dawning. Hope would be turned into reality.
How's that working out? All these dramatic changes we were promised never panned out. Obama continued much of Bush's wiretapping follies and did not shutdown Guantanamo. Politics continues to trump science. Instead of bringing most of our troops home, we simply moved a good number of them to a different theater. The health care bill that passed was an embarrassment and Democrats have been no friends to labor, the environment or the millions of people being fraudulently thrown out of their homes.
Alas, the new day never dawned.
So, excuse me if I don't buy into the opposite scenario -- imminent doom. While I have no doubt the Republican-controlled House will pass some horrid legislation, that only represents one-third of the equation. If some of these draconian measures become the law of the land, then the fault still will lie with the Democrats, not the Republicans, since the former still controls 2/3 of the federal power structure.
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