2006-11-08

A good day for democracy

Yesterday, George Bush's America died. Voters pushed members of his party out of state offices, pushed them out of the majority in the House of Representatives, and depending on the results of two very close races in Virginia and Montana, may also have pushed them out of the majority in the Senate. There are still two years left in his term, but the capacity he once had to operate as if he were in a one-party state is gone.

I would have to be a lot taller to get proper historic perspective, but let's hope that this administration is the bizarre aberration it appears to be, one horrifying detour from this society's path to democracy, an aggressive and ultimately failed effort at restoration by a residual clique of hardliners on its way out.
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5 comments:

Shaina said...

The mid terms are proving to have a bigger impact than I first predicted.
Given the strength of the executive branch in this administration, or the fact that this administration as seemengly bipassed Congress on other occassions, I didn't feel that the Democrats control of the House, and virtual tie when it came to control of the Senate, would have the impact that the pundits were predicting.
With Rumsfeld's resignation, I guess I was wrong. Granted, there is no sign how much of a factor the Democrats taking control of the House played in Rumsfeld "deciding" to quit; but it certainly has to be a factor.

8/11/06 23:16
Eric Gordy said...

Maybe Rumsfeld was already on his way out, they were just waiting for the elections to announce it?

The Senate majority will probably be fairly weak, since some of the Demos are pretty far to the right and the party will be forced to maintain Lieberman's loyalty (if I were in the Demo leadership, I would be working very hard to try to flip Snowe and Collins of Maine, who are Reps but rarely vote with their party, probably the last remaining Rep liberals). But a lot of Bush's changed tone today probably comes from the shock of defeat -- this crew is not used to losing, and now Bush will be compelled to defend his historical legacy against everything he has done so far. So if the House Dems are smart (not guaranteed!) they may end up having a lot of power.

9/11/06 00:14
WARchild said...

A lot of the benefit of having the two branches controlled by opposing parties comes from the ability to question policies. Maybe Rumsfeld was on the way out, but not wanting to get grilled by Dem-controlled committees hastened the decision.

9/11/06 07:01
Eric Gordy said...

I do hope they do a bit of grilling! But there is always the chance that they may give up on principles of accountability in the "spirit of bipartisanship."

9/11/06 12:20
Anonymous said...

Yes it's good, and a guy I ran for office against years ago is retireing. So I feel good. I can hit Gloat City with a Big Smile! :)

10/11/06 00:13

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