Post Election Rumination
Nov 8, 08:01 PM by Rich Webster
Phew, glad that’s over.
We failed locally: Doolittle’s still in the House. But with the tide turned, at least he’ll be reigned-in, and who knows, maybe the investigations will turn something up, and turn him out.
Part of me just wants business to get done, and part of me wants to see the Republican Party and the White House investigated so thoroughly that a day-to-day, minute-by-minute history of the Bush administration can be written from it.
Locally, the little old ladies at the Lake Wildwood Clubhouse couldn’t get the machines turned on, so all the ballots were paper, at least for the first few hours. There was one Diebold. They said “the door wouldn’t close” but I’m not sure which door. The other machine was just a paper ballot scanner, which dumped the scanned ballots into a big, locked plastic box. But this wasn’t working either, so they had opened the little side door to the “auxiliary box” which, after only 40 minutes (I finished voting at 7:40am), was refusing to receive the big 14” paper ballots gracefully. The ends kept poking out.
I called the elections office after I left, and it took three tries over an hour to get through. I talked to a very concerned volunteer who assured me that the Registrar would be notified ASAP. That’s where I left it. The folks running the polling station had apparently not called in the problem. My call was the first they’d heard of it.
And this morning they announced Rumsfeld’s out. Too bad Bush and Cheney can’t be dismissed so easily. We need to switch to a parliamentary system. They’d have gotten a vote of “no confidence” and been out months ago.
The really sad thing is how many people still think the Republicans still should get their vote! It’s really sad people don’t pay close enough attention to see the broad swath of destruction they’ve wreaked on our government and the world.
It’s also amazing how many people will trade lower taxes for a shredded Constitution. In fact, the vast majority of people will get the same tax treatment from Democrats as Republicans. But in the end, it is going to cost us all more to have Republicans than Democrats… assuming the Dems still have Clintonomics on their minds. But the real savings will come from a renewed interest in worker and consumer rights and protections. Corporate lawlessness costs us all, in a very big way.
I don’t expect “corporate rule” to be ended by Dems, but it might get brushed back a bit. Another reason for a parliamentary system: small parties like the Greens could get a few people elected and pressure/work with either party to advance common goals, like global warming, and consumer protection. The Dems might’ve been less of a powerless minority, the last 10 years.
In the end it is both about individuals we’ve elected, and our ability to reach them. It is about grinding through boring policy work, and setting aside the stuff that sets off the extremist base, like flag burning and gay hating.
Will the tide turn for average Americans who aren’t benefitting from the “roaring economy” that I keep hearing about on CNBC? Let’s hope… and let’s call our representatives and complain if they get off track.
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