Question...who wrote this last week: "I still think Obama will win, and I don't think that we will be up all night waiting to find out."
Answer: This girl!
What, what? Who can see the future? (Or, who has Nate Silver's blog bookmarked...shhh...)
We are still in the post-election glow, where Congress is going to put aside their differences and work with each other and the President to reach consensus and tackle difficult problems. Democrats are going to respect their new broad coalition while Republicans are going to move to the center socially.
This, to me, is utterly ridiculous. Let's take a step back and really examine what we just did in our $6 billion election.
We elected the same President, and did so by winning just about the same states as last time. He ran on a platform that promised to pursue the same policies he has for four years. We elected almost the same exact House, switching about 5 seats out of 435. We elected almost the same Senate, switching 2-3 seats out of 100. (It's actually worse than that...where we did make changes, it is more often than not a replacement of a moderate with a hyper-partisan).
Exactly what message are we trying to send to our elected leaders? For all of the talk and all of the outrage, it seems to me that the overwhelming sentiment is "You guys are doing a bang-up job...keep at it!" What would make us think that we are going to get a different course of action out of the same group of people after we just re-affirmed what they have been doing?
I'm not saying we should throw everyone out every 2-4 years (and I voted for Obama), but shouldn't we maybe hold them all just a little bit more accountable than this? What is that about "insanity"...doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result...?
Just remember that when December comes and we are stuck in a totally manufactured "crisis" over the fiscal cliff. If you wonder why the President won't give and inch on entitlement cuts and why the House GOP won't give an inch on tax increases, remember this election. Remember when we told them all "Hey, we approve of your job performance, keep it up!"
If Congress has a 14% approval rating, how come they get re-elected 90% of the time? Hint: it's not because your Congressman is awesome and the other 434 suck...
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Reality Check
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6 comments:
I'm pretty sure I follow your post, but I disagree. I think this election shows exactly how divided our country is in terms of the issues and the means to right those issues. When we essentially elected a Congress that looks very similar to the last Congress, it's not because we each think Congress as a whole is doing a great job. Rather, we feel those Senators and Representatives for our state/region are heading in the right direction (and thus, voted them in), but also believe Senators and Representatives in other areas of the country are the problem-children (and yet, we have no control over whether they get into office or not).
Oh wait, I just re-read your last paragraph and see you've come to the same conclusion. Whoops!
I need to stop reading now, because you totally disagree with my original comment. Please don't post all these comments ... hahaha.
I post everything!!!
And yes, that is my conclusion...everyone loves the graft that their own Congressman procures for them while denouncing the others! They can all agree on a few things, and one of them is that the system should be set up to greatly favor incumbents!
I feel like I consume a broad array of news (yes even Fox because boyfriend thinks it's funny)and I don't feel like the narrative is post-glow we shall overcome. I really feel like media is portraying that even though Obama supporters are happy he was re-elected, that basically we are back at status quo and I actually disagree with THAT. I think now that he and lot of other democrats are no longer in re-election mode they can stand to rock the boat more. Maybe they will, maybe they won't but I think it is a different climate and circumstances even if the cast of characters looks mostly the same.
This post made me reach for a bottle, ahem I mean glass of wine. I hate that you're right, it's sad. And a little gross. The point you made - not you of course :o).
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