Wednesday, November 08, 2006

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I'm so happy yet flabbergasted...

The Democrats take the House, and probably the Senate as well? This is the best news for America in some time!! Maybe we can now get to the bottom of some of the questions that Bush and company have refused to answer.

But at the same time, the Democrats in their current incarnation are not "the answer." They are still too compromised by lobbyists and still too timid about getting out of Iraq. It may be that the high hopes that those of us on the left have about impeachment and withdrawal from Iraq and investigations and convictions of high officials and what not will be dashed.

But at least with the Democrats getting an obvious mandate and a sweeping victory, we're in a much better position for that kind of thing to happen than we were at this time yesterday. And the public has obviously caught on to the Bush/Rove/Cheney ruse of the ol' smear and fear.

So I'll take a wait-and-see approach regarding the chastening of the Bushies, but at least we can be assured that Social Security will remain, well, secure and that the minimum wage will be raised and so forth. If we could get rid of the Military Commissions Act, have a real investigation of 9/11, get out of Iraq, and impeach the rat bastards--well, that'd be awesome but I don't wanna ask for too much...

Let today be a day of celebration!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Clinton,

I agree that there is still too much lobbying going on. I wonder...is that something that we can ban? It seems that all the people we elect to represent us just get paid off by the special interests and keep our interests second at best...

With this change of power, I have a few concerns:

1. I just hope the economy, which is going strong, won't go in the tank. I for one don't want my tax cut repealed and I'm sure that's on the top 3 things to do for the Dems.

2. I don't know that raising the minimum wage will have the desired effect...but I hope I'm wrong. It seems to me that this is perpetual issue. Things will continue to get more expensive as companies pass these costs on. We need to remember that for the majority of people, minimum wage is an entry level job and not intended for your entire career. I think a better way to address this is education so that people can get higher paying jobs. Also we need to stop outsourcing all our jobs to China and the like.

3.I hope that we can sort out this immigration problem because it's getting out of hand. I don't know that a wall is a solution, but I think we definitely need to beef up our infrastructure to allow processing of immigrants in a real-time fashion. We need to know who is coming in our country.

4. I hope the military won't get downsized as during the Clinton years. In these times we need to be ready for anything.

5. I don't really have a thought on healthcare other than it should be affordable for all (I know firsthand how expensive it is to buy it as an individual), but I don't know that I embrace a completely socialized system.

As you may have guessed, I'm somewhat of a conserative (probably more libertarian) and I don't feel that the Republican party has ever really represented my ideals. Maybe a moderate is a better description. So I really don't care which "party" is in control as long as they do the right thing. As Glen Beck says, "Don't vote Democrat or Republican, vote American". I guess that could mean many things to many different people, but I think the main thought is that we need real genuine people in the White House and not just parrots for their respective parties. I think that we need more parties to choose from (that could actually win), but that may end up diluting Congress and causing stalemates due to lack of majority votes on issues.

Still, we have one of the best systems in the world and I don't think I would trade for the alternatives that are out there.

LarryG

Anonymous said...

Maybe a third party in a two party system :) hell maybe even more parties considering all of America probably doesnt adhere to D or R

Ya know, like a real democracy :)