It’s official – Barack Obama is the President Elect. He’s joined by a net gain of Democrats in both the House and the Senate meaning we once again have Democrat control of Congress and the White House. Looking back, I wonder how we got here. How did we go from winning landslide elections in 1994 to abysmal losses now? I think there are two things at play here.
First, Republicans never learned how to be the majority. We won the Congress after a very conservative “Contract with America” campaign. For a while there, Republican congressmen stuck to their pledge and brought these important issues to a vote. But after the first two years, we slacked off. We started, “reaching across the isle” and tried to be more “bipartisan.” But to Democrats, “bipartisan” means giving up all of our convictions and letting them run congress from the minority, which is exactly what we did. Republicans had a mandate to govern as conservatives and they delivered to us “moderate-ness.”
But another reason for Republican failure is the uncanny ability of Democrats to blame Republicans for everything. It started in 1995 with the Government Shutdown, when Bill Clinton squared off with the Republican Congress – led by Newt Gingrich - over the new budget. Bill Clinton was effectively able to blame the Republicans for the stalemate and the Republican Revolution lost its momentum. Since then, Republicans seem interested in nothing more than saving face and appealing to the media. I’m sorry folks but you’re never going to win the support of the media so just cut it out, OK?
Well Congress’s approval rating currently stands at 18% with 75% of the people disapproving. Up until now, they’ve been able to blame George W. Bush for their woes. But, as the old saying goes, they won’t have W. to kick around anymore. So now what? We’ve got a liberal Democrat President conspiring with a liberal Democrat Congress. Who are they going to blame now?
Of course, we all know they’re going to continue to blame W. for straddling Obama with such a bad economy, but I think that’s going to grow old after a while. Obama did promise to be the agent of change and campaigned strongly on the economy. He assured us over and over that he was ready for the job. It will be a little tough for him to get away with whining about how bad it was when he took over.
OK you dems out there. You wanted him – you got him. You’ve got a strong majority in Congress to boot. Of course, Obama’s going to start appointing judges as well so we’ll just say that’s all three branches of the government in your hands. Show us how it’s done. Good luck. I’ll see you in 2 years at the 2010 election.
First, Republicans never learned how to be the majority. We won the Congress after a very conservative “Contract with America” campaign. For a while there, Republican congressmen stuck to their pledge and brought these important issues to a vote. But after the first two years, we slacked off. We started, “reaching across the isle” and tried to be more “bipartisan.” But to Democrats, “bipartisan” means giving up all of our convictions and letting them run congress from the minority, which is exactly what we did. Republicans had a mandate to govern as conservatives and they delivered to us “moderate-ness.”
But another reason for Republican failure is the uncanny ability of Democrats to blame Republicans for everything. It started in 1995 with the Government Shutdown, when Bill Clinton squared off with the Republican Congress – led by Newt Gingrich - over the new budget. Bill Clinton was effectively able to blame the Republicans for the stalemate and the Republican Revolution lost its momentum. Since then, Republicans seem interested in nothing more than saving face and appealing to the media. I’m sorry folks but you’re never going to win the support of the media so just cut it out, OK?
Well Congress’s approval rating currently stands at 18% with 75% of the people disapproving. Up until now, they’ve been able to blame George W. Bush for their woes. But, as the old saying goes, they won’t have W. to kick around anymore. So now what? We’ve got a liberal Democrat President conspiring with a liberal Democrat Congress. Who are they going to blame now?
Of course, we all know they’re going to continue to blame W. for straddling Obama with such a bad economy, but I think that’s going to grow old after a while. Obama did promise to be the agent of change and campaigned strongly on the economy. He assured us over and over that he was ready for the job. It will be a little tough for him to get away with whining about how bad it was when he took over.
OK you dems out there. You wanted him – you got him. You’ve got a strong majority in Congress to boot. Of course, Obama’s going to start appointing judges as well so we’ll just say that’s all three branches of the government in your hands. Show us how it’s done. Good luck. I’ll see you in 2 years at the 2010 election.
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