It's been over a month since the 2010 General mid-term election and, in general, I think good things happened. Yet, I'm disappointed that so many Americans just "don't get it"! Why do so many of us just view these elections as nothing more serious than a football game or any other contest with devoted Fans? "Yea, go Clippers! The Lakers suck!" or "I'm a Republican, my parents were Republicans and I'll die a Republican".
Really?! Is that all this is? Utes verses Cougars? Bruins verses Trojans? Or worse yet, are we going to repeat 2008 in two years and treat the Presidential Election like it's nothing more than a season of American Idol?
There may have been a time when both the Republicans and the Democrats were devoted fans of the Constitution and the philosophical differences between them were within the boundaries of differing emphasis, interpretation or implementation. It hasn't been that way for a long time. I think the Charismatically Delusional among us have had their way with the Parties for decades.
The Republicans have been co-opted by the Neo-Cons and the Religious Fanatics over the past few decades and are starting to get back to a Constitutional philosophy with the Tea Party movement. I'm thrilled to hear people using the term Libertarian in political discussions. So maybe there is hope for the Right.
Wow! But the Democrats have been supplanted by the Progressives to the point that I'm thinking there may be no way back to their being the party with a liberal view of the role of constitutional government. The Progs won't say it in mixed company, but they'd rather have a Constitutional Convention to rip up our existing Constitution and start over with something that Marx, Mao or Chavez would approve of.
The Republicans still have a lot of cleaning house to do, but they seem to be headed in the right direction. The only hope for the Dems is for the Moderates and Blue-dogs to grow a pair and stand-up for their historic role as defenders of freedom. Most of the Free Market Democrat citizenry jumped ship along with Ronald Reagan to become Republicans. I've given up any hope that a third-party could rise-up, the system just doesn't work that way. The Socialists and Communists of the early 20th century figured that out and realized they'd need to co-opt the existing parties and they knew it was going to take time. They were right and here we are, a hundred years later and now they believe it's time for a century of "progress" to finally bear fruit.
The next Eighteen months are going to be historic, the last two years have been and they were just prologue. Power Grabs and congressional end-runs will abound. The violence will be unbelievable. Class-warfare and racism will run rampant. The disappointed Progressives will panic from fear that the window of opportunity is closing with the 2012 Elections and then the civil unrest will begin. America will resemble the countries we've always considered banana republics, at least for a while.
OK! I'm sorry to bum you out. There will still be televised talent contests and reality shows to watch. Mrs. Obama won't get your In-N-Out Burger outlawed and just think of all the new Sarah Palin jokes you'll hear from late night talk show hosts and the Comedy Channel! See it's not all bad news!
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