*Yawn* I Needed A Nap
So the 2006 mid-term elections are over and done with and I got a restful six week nap. The election results were basically a landslide mandate against the war. Arianna Huffington said “the GOP lost for three reasons: Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq”. In my opinion, that was the majority of the motivation, but the Democrats squeaking out a Senate majority (51-49) by a couple thousand votes in several races also owes thanks to things like the crumbling economy and corruption (Mark Foley, Tom Delay, etc). The numbers show that about 30% of the evangelical right actually voted Democratic this time around.
A notable statistic in the election results is the flawless* victory of the Democrats over the Republicans. In the House, the Senate, and (if memory serves) all Governor races, no Democratic seats were lost to the Republicans. (The asterisk is for Joe Lieberman, the sore loser who lost the Democratic primary for the Connecticut Senate seat and became an independent, ultimately retaining his seat by beating the anti-war Ned Lamont with the help of a majority of the voting Republicans. He promises to caucus with the Democrats, but his political past mandates that promise is recorded on single-ply toilet paper.)
The savage beating taken by the current administration this past November seventh was even described as what could be “The End of the Neocons“. I dearly hope that ends up being the case. The neocon vision of western superiority – a.k.a. Manifest Destiny or ‘God picked us because we are us’ – is really getting old. It was wrong a thousand years ago, and it’s more obviously wrong now.
Roughly speaking, I’m overjoyed with the election results. The only part I worry about (if you haven’t figured out yet) is Lieberman still being in government. I’d almost prefer some random Republican yes-man because at least that way you can plainly expect them to vote the wrong way on everything. But since the American people screamed NO to the war in Iraq, the mainstream media has actually started fracturing from its united pro-Bush drumbeat. Keith Olbermann is looking to pull ahead of Bill “bag-of-crap” O’Reilly, Jack Cafferty is more and more vocal about Bush’s failures, and even ex-Republican representative Joe Scarborough is daring to speak with logic and honesty.
As the ramp-up to the 2008 presidential elections continues, I really hope John Edwards builds up the momentum he deserves to landslide against whatever pro-misery windbag the Republican party is bound to choose. Edwards actually gives a crap about the economic problems all over the place, and has actually done things to show that. Here is a great blog entry covering Edwards’ importance. Check youtube for some Edwards videos if you need more convincing – he would do an amazing job in a presidential race not having to follow in another candidate’s shadow.