Southern Bread

I almost always vote Republican. Not because I’m “a Republican”, but because they happen to be the party at the moment that most reflects the views I hold. If that ever changes then I will be something else. There is a difference between simply voting for a certain party and actually being part of the party machine. Voters care about issues and ideologies, machinists care about power and perks. I could care less if it’s a Republican or a Democrat or a Green dude in the Senate. As long as he votes the way I would, he’ll have my vote. This should be the case for everyone. That’s why the Republicans losing Congress last night really didn’t bother me that much. In fact, I think they deserved it. As much as I hate to see it, it will probably be good for conservatives in the long run.

We’re going to hear a lot of pundits over the next few weeks saying that it was mainly the war in Iraq that caused the power shift. I do think that had something to do with it, but I think it had more to do with corruption and ineptitude. Never in my life have I seen so many politicians get into so many scandals as the Republicans have over the last two years. Every month there was a new sex scandal or backroom deal coming out. I know that not all of them were true, but if you get caught up in some kind of scandal, 99% of the time it’s your own fault. Shame on every one of them. They deserved to lose. The only one I still don’t understand is Rick Santorum. People on both sides recognized him as a man of excellent moral character. Who knows, maybe he or Mitt Romney will run for president.

The other reason I wasn’t too bothered by the change of power is because nothing was really being accomplished anyway. I think that frustrated a lot of people – including me. Remember after the 2004 presidential election when Bush met reporters for the first time. He said, “Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” And over the past two years he has thrown every dime of it down the toilet, because the Republican controlled congress wouldn’t do their job. Social Security reform, Tax Code reform and Immigration reform were all dismal failures in congress. Energy prices have been soaring the last few years and not one thing has been done about it. Republicans held the Presidency, the House and the Senate for 6 years and all they got out of it was 2 Supreme Court justices and some “phased” tax cuts. What a joke.

What we have seen the last 6 years has been the return of the Gerald Ford, blue-blood, country club Republican. What we saw last night was the return of the Reagan Democrat. In most of the seats picked up by Democrats, there was either a scandalous republican being ousted or a conservative Democrat winning over a moderate Republican. Paul Begala said last night on CNN that these “aren’t your daddy’s Democrats” being installed. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens over the next 2 years with these right-leaning Democrats being led by an extremely liberal party leadership. One thing is for sure though. At least with the Congress and the President divided, they have less of a chance of screwing up our lives now than they did in ’92.