Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Democrats Mudslide Into Power

Well, the Democrats have taken the House and most likely the Senate. Does anyone have any predictions for how the next two years will pan out? I think a graph of President Bush's use of his veto stamp would look something like this:



My prediction is that these following two years will prove more difficult for the Democrats than the last two. They control the legislature and will be expected to achieve results, a difficult task if Bush vetoes every bill coming out of Capitol Hill. More dangerous, is that they could easily get mired in the politics of revenge. The Republicans refused to engage in bipartisan law-making over the last six years, can we fairly expect the Democrats to forgive, forget, and embrace bipartisanship? Doing so will be a bitter pill for the Democrats to swallow given the complete lack of bipartisanship in the past six years. You won’t find very many bills where almost all Republicans did not vote along party lines.

And this lack of legislative progress can have very real political consequences for the Democrats two years from now. If no significant issues or problems are addressed until the 2008 election, it’s almost certain that the GOP will try to paint the Democrats as ineffective. The GOP will claim that they were given a chance at power, and didn’t accomplish anything! How can we vote for them again in 2008? They’ll conveniently ignore the impossibility of passing laws over a constant veto.

So while they’re stuck in the coming mire, if they want to have any hope of maintaining their majorities, and possibly winning the presidency they need a strong platform with strong rhetoric. What is the Democrats’ plan? We usually expect the victor of our elections to stride arrogantly onto the stage proclaiming their plan for the next two or four or six years. Why haven’t we heard any agenda yet from the Democrats? It’s never too early. They have the House majority, they’re likely going to have the Senate majority. America wants your ideas, your plan, Democrats. If you stride towards great achievements and stymied by the executive branch you can at least tell us you tried. But, if you want to repeat 2006 in 2008, you better show America your plan.

On an unrelated question, anyone think the Democrats will try to field a Clinton/Obama ticket?

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This guy really knows his stuff. I mean, he's the top hit on Google since creating the blog in early Nov. I'd keep my eyes on him. He's going places.

1:43 AM  

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