Two Tribes

In every state, in every county, and in every city or town some Americans (usually around 35%) are going to make decisions that will affect us all. That day is the first Tuesday in November, and it’s voting day. And for the roughly 35% who show up and correctly mark their ballots in midterm elections, your voice is the voice that authorizes the elected officials to act in the “interest of the people.” The rest of you who don’t bother to vote or aren’t politically active, well…you can grumble all you want, but don’t expect those who were elected to really listen to you. Why should they? They tend to listen to the people who put them in office.

(Sigh)

Since the Republicans hold power by a very slim margin, the stakes are high for both parties. Republicans want to retain power so they can keep all the perks that come with holding power without having to answer to anyone who opposes them. Democrats know that many in the country are very hungry to correct the direction our country has headed since Bush was installed as President by the Supreme Court in 2000. After losing election after election, and looking like the walking dead, Democrats are now cautiously optimistic (but not taking anything for granted) that they have a very good chance (barring any kind of voter suppression or Diebold computer fraud) that they will be elected in greater numbers than their Republican counterparts and become the majority party in at least one of the houses of Congress.

Bush — not taking anything for granted, either — hopped on a plane to campaign for Republicans where they are at risk of losing their seats (i.e., Pombo in Stockton). If everything remained pretty much as it was last month, Bush would have been able to energize his “base” to get out and vote for those candidates he endorsed. It would have been another close one, but my hunch in that the Republicans would keep their majority status — but it would be very, very slim.

But then came Mark Foley and Bob Woodward’s book…

With each day, we’re seeing more lurid details about Mark Foley’s lust for underage boys (aka pedophilia) while serving as a Republican congressman from Florida. People who honestly believed that George W. Bush and his Republican colleagues were going to “restore honor and integrity” to the White House (and by extension, the entire federal government), must now be feeling like they were duped. Sure, most on the left side of the political spectrum have felt like Bush and his cronies have been duping Americans since 1999/2000, but with Foley, those “values voters” who pray to God and for Bush in the same breath must be wondering what “God’s Own Party” is doing protecting Foley — who has so many vices that it would take someone of Jesus Christ’s stature to forgive him because, well, the rest of us are human and would love to see this guy boiled in oil — along with those in the Republican leadership who protected him so the the party could retain power.

With Bob Woodward’s book, The Right was prepared to smear him for using incorrect punctuation if they couldn’t hang him for getting a quote or his facts wrong. Hell, the White House already was in defense mode by posting a rebuttal to some of the major points in the book. Woodward was even on the O’Reilly Factor, and O’Reilly was even skirting the major points in his book and instead asked him some pointless questions about how his book is going to be used by the “far left” as fodder for their opposition to the war. I could tell O’Reilly had nothing because he kept asking Woodward a variation of the “Aren’t you worried that the far left is going to use your book to criticize the president and the war?”

Hmm…Let’s see: Since a large majority of the American public believes that the war in Iraq is going poorly and something else needs to be done, then does that make the majority of Americans “far left” in O’Reilly’s eyes? Is that a “yes” I hear? Thought so…you communists!

Do the Democrats have a good chance of winning both houses of Congress in November? Well, if you look at THIS Gallup poll survey, a Magic 8 ball would say: “Chances are Good”

–PK

Download Frankie Goes to Hollywood “Two Tribes” HERE

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