Election 2006 - Post-Carnage Reaction

Whew, I'm so glad the elections are over! Being the political news junkie that I am, I ended up staying up most of the night to see who came out on top. I'll admit I was disappointed last night that the Republicans lost both houses of Congress, but I can't say I was surprised. It seemed like every year my husband and I were feeling more and more dissatisfied with the performance of the Republicans, but we also felt like we didn't have much of a choice. Today, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the future. Most of the Democrats that took over Republican seats were moderates, not of the Kos-Kidz variety. I would have voted for the Democrat (Harris) in my U.S. district over the Republican (Barton) if Harris had clearly stated his platform and not linked to the far left blog Daily Kos. Looking at Harris' blog, all I could find out was that he was against the Iraq War and in favor of increasing veteran benefits (a good thing)--and that Barton is an EVIL conservative that hates disabled kids.

Barton hasn't done anything illegal as far as I know, but he is clearly in the pocket of big business and could care less about his constituents--especially when it comes to air quality in our county. I'll write more about that later. I wish my husband or one of his friends would run against him in the next Republican primary, but they'd be pulverized by Barton's campaign machine.

I think the Republicans have only themselves to blame for their defeat. Many of them have not been listening to their constituents when it comes to illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, social security reform, and limiting pork barrel spending. Some of them committed ethical and even criminal violations. Being in control of the government for so long made them lazy, corrupt, and complacent. The voters were fed up with them, and either voted against them or stayed home. I'm not sad to see that RINOS like Chafee and Dewine were sent packing.

The Democrats clearly learned from the last election that they have to run more moderate candidates in order to win in Red districts. I only hope that the Republicans will clean up their act over the next two years and that the Democratic majority don't screw things up too badly. I'd like to believe Nancy Pelosi's concilatory rhetoric that she intends to reach across the aisle, and act as the Speaker of the House for the American people, not just Democrats. But she is a politician after all, and I don't trust her one bit.