The Big Day

At this point it’s too late to start wondering what could have been. The elections are upon us and the predictions are only pointing one way. The Democrats might as well go ahead and put a disaster stamp in the party’s history book for this chapter. I for one have been impressed with what they have accomplished, and I am not some person who believes that change happens overnight. The Republican Party will at best take the House and the Senate today and at worst only takes the House. That will be enough to bring a gloom to my hope for further progressive change. We will see stagnation in American politics as the Republicans bask in their conquest and then realize that it won’t be as easy as they had thought all this time. The Tea Party will be frothing at the mouth like zombies over their shoulders and when they misstep they will pay for it.

I wonder how long it takes before they go centrist? Will they compromise? What will compromise cost them? How long before the coalition they have built frays? It’s going to be a very interesting two years to say the least.

I am ashamed of my country. I had big hopes after the cowboy was gone that we were going in the right direction, that reason and intellect might even be something to admire once again. I was wrong. People like Glenn Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity exist on the airwaves because people are willing to listen to that garbage. They want their politicians and policies to be as simple as a two hour-long radio show. They want to know who to hate. Hate is something that is growing in America. Its strange how instead of moving forward and trying to improve our lives we have turned to hating our neighbors, to blaming them for our bad choices, and hating on anyone and anything that comes from outside our own limited spheres of knowledge. Der Spiegel has an article today about the end of the American Dream. Its one of the most frank and forthright articles I have read about America in a long time. I recommend it to everyone who reads this blog. The gist of it is this: Americans have lived beyond their means for decades now. They used to brag about it to the rest of the world. Now economic reality has finally caught up with them and instead of change they are just going to get mad and vote for the same party that encouraged the bad behavior from the beginning.

I hope everyone who is reading this is voting today.

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