If we could call either the Democratic or Republican party the winner last night, it would certainly be the Democratic Party. But any change that occurred was minimal. Twenty of the 21 Senate incumbents running retained their seat, with the only outlier being Scott Brown. This can hardly be considered a good thing. This new, 113th Congress, has the tough job of following the most poorly rated Congress in American history, and with little change to Congress itself, what hope is there for change?
So, to whom can we turn? The same president in power during this stagnant Congress? Yes. By no means will President Obama go down as a top-notch president, but that is not to say that I don’t believe that President Obama is the man for the job.
Regardless of who was elected, the almost insurmountable task of conquering this Congress remains the same. For this challenge, I believe that President Obama is better suited than Mitt Romney. Why? For starters, look at what both candidates accomplished during their times in office. Governor Romney did do a respectable job while Governor of Massachusetts. Governor Romney continued the financial support of the Massachusetts school systems during his time as Governor, and did not challenge the strong teachers’ union here. This did indeed place Massachusetts as one of the top states for education in the country. The median income for families in Massachusetts rose between 2003 and 2007, and the Massachusetts unemployment rate fell as well. The one catch here is that while the income rose mathematically, it fell when adjusted for inflation. Nonetheless, I still respect what Governor Romney did for our Commonwealth and think he did a good job.
I now need to look at what President Obama did in his four years. Autoworkers in Michigan and Ohio have jobs again, women have equal pay in the workplace, a healthcare bill was passed (which models the one passed in Massachusetts under Romney), and Bin-Laden is dead. There still remain many issues though. There is an economy that needs fixing, wars that need ending, and the growing threat of a nuclear Iran that needs addressing.
Little of this matters though; President Obama won the election. Now that the elections are over, does November 7 look any more promising than November 6? Other than an impending Nor’easter yesterday, yes.
Our checks and balances system, so masterfully crafted into our Constitution all those years ago, still applies today. For that reason our government cannot function with a stagnant Congress.Under President Bush, the Democratic minority in Congress filibustered 201 times, while under President Obama, the Republican minority has filibustered over 363 times. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, rich or poor, black or white, male or female, you must be sickened by this!
It takes 60 votes in the Senate to just put the bill up for vote, which means that only 41 have to vote to filibuster. No party holds this 60:40 advantage over the other, which simply means that things are slow to get done. In a recent interview in “60 Minutes,” Senators from both sides of the aisle, as well as Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell themselves, professed that voting along party lines has taken precedent over voting for morals or what is best for the nation.
The one and only true solution to this issue was the re-election of President Obama. I believe that a second term President will do what any newly elected President could not: center the GOP. The Republican Party draws its roots from Jefferson and the anti-Federalists, which stood for strong state’s rights, as well as a strict interpretation of the Constitution. I believe in this. I believe that Washington D.C. should not tell Massachusetts where or how it should be spending its money. But the Republican Party today has strayed from these principles. Yes, there have always been lunatics such as McCarthy in the Republican Party that are extremists, but I do dare say that today, McCarthy’s zealotry today would be praised!
All one has to do is look at the growing power of the Tea Party. What started as a response to tax policies by middle-class families has turned to an attack on anything that hints of being liberal. In the previous Congress, 56 members proclaimed to being members of the Tea Party.The Tea Party claims to be a grassroots movement, yet the party is a beneficiary of the $196 million from the Koch brothers, and the party is therefore bound to serve the Koch’s right-wing political agenda.
An extreme, yet completely real example of Tea Party action in Congress is the Birthright Citizenship Act. This act, which had the support of 39 Tea Party members, would overturn the 14th amendment. This would not allow American children born in the United States to undocumented residents to be automatic American citizens. Thinking about it in historical terms, the amendment was passed during Reconstruction to give citizenship to African-Americans who had just been freed and up until that time, were not considered to be American citizens. In effect, this bill was aiming to destroy a fundamental cornerstone of American values.
While this example is extreme, it is a reflection of a belief of the GOP. The current party platform of the GOP involves many claims such as this. Coming from the actual GOP website, a platform of the party is that the “future of marriage affects freedom” and that preventing any non-traditional marriage would lead “to more government control over the lives of its citizens in all aspect.” I honestly fail to understand how a homosexual couple living down the street in any way, shape or form, could affect the well being of anyone else. Social issues like this one, as well as Republicans questioning a woman’s right to choose, makes me question whether or not the Republican Party is sticking to its fundamental background of “limited government.”
So what makes today look more promising than yesterday? A victory for the Democrats.
Governor Romney is by no means as right-wing and conservative as the rest of the GOP, yet as the Republican candidate, he has a duty to oblige the wishes of his party.
If you are a Republican who wished to see the centering of your party once more, then November 6 was the day for you. There is no need to pack your bags and head to Canada for four years (which, by the way, is a socialist nation) because things are getting better. I have great hopes for this country for these upcoming four years. President Obama will achieve the iconic image that is reserved for only two-term presidents, and accordingly, I believe that this gap between Republicans and Democrats will be bridged, especially as the issue of “Obamacare” passes. Both Democrats and Republicans have agreed that in these next four years, compromises will be reached.
President Obama hasn’t necessarily been given a mandate by the American people to carry out whatever policies he wants, but the message sent yesterday was crystal clear: The American people don’t want change, they want progress, and progress is what we’ll get.
