THE DEAFENING ELECTION CRESCENDO!

Sometimes there are sounds that get inside of your head and rattle your brain. Many times it might be at an opera or during a cold wind storm where you have to walk miles to the nearest store for infant formula. The point is that there is no avoiding the elements.

In politics that has become true too. The rising tide of partisanship signales the coming tide as a midterm election approaches. In the past two decades however, the reverberating political atmosphere has just about made everyone in this country deaf.

No one is listening to the other side for the purpose of reasoned discussion. This dialogue has built an atmosphere of gotcha politics and a slimy grasp for the control of something. Politicians hold no power over those that they represent unless the electorate allows it. Many in politics do not know that or quickly forget when the levers of government are placed in their care.

The media has been functioning in the same manner since the advent of cable TV news. It is a pity. No matter which side of any issue you happen to be on you can bet that there are plenty of name calling mood altered persons on the opposite side who are that way because they cannot convince you of their point of view. This “I am the only one who can be right” stance has seeped into most avenues of the American culture. The most visual among us with the affliction is the media and politicians.

There have been other cultures that have run into the same sort of divergence from their historical foundations for the “My way or the highway” path. They all happen to have been conquered, however.

Great nations fall from within first and then are overrun by eager external enemies. We are doing the first part now. Just listen to the winds of this midterm election season. The seeds of discontent are a canyon that divides us. If we can only see each other as brothers during the time of a terror attack then the enemy is halfway home to taking us out because we've done the first half of the work for him.

It is time to vote on issues with logic and reason. Pathos should not enter into the decision making process. Such emotion blinds a people. Right now in our history we need to see what is taking aim at us. Unfortunately we are distracted by our own noise as it is peaking.

It is time to quite the rhetoric and become brothers in arms again. You can disagree with someone else, but let’s stop destroying others with differing opinions. Simply spar with civil discourse our valuable ideas. The oponent you snear at regarding abortion, immigration and homeland security, may be your brother in arms of the future. Don't burn that bridge. keep the lines of civil communications open. Don't be deafened by the current modern blowig winds.

WHEN HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!


By all accounts the Democrat party should be waltzing into control of at least one and probably both chambers of Congress after the 2006 mid-term election. Every poll and interpretation by the media offers a dire consequence to the Republican majority.

The media spin doctors once again have their act together and are filtering these ideas through a heavy yet transparent agenda. There is more ammunition this time compared with the previous four election cycles to boost hopeful Democrats into believing the Republican Revolution and their control of every arm in the government is about to change. They are ignoring their mantra of the 1992 election; it’s the economy stupid.

Historically the party in power loses a lot of seats during a mid term election. In the 1950’s 24 seats on average were lost by the party holding power in the White House. That was last century however, and before George Bush and Karl Rove started to gnaw at Democrat sensibilities in these races. In the time since the Republican Revolution in 1994 that number of changing seats has shrunk dramatically.

In this century with Bush in office the old paradigm has not applied. Republicans have been able to upset the Democrat victory parade four times running. Each one of those elections was earmarked by Democrats underestimating the formidability of Bush and Rove’s strategy. Democrats have the tendency also to believe their own press. Well they’re about to do it again. Strike up the band for one more round of shock and awe at the ballot box!

In the 2000 Presidential race President Bush bested Vice President Gore in the electoral vote while losing the popular vote. The Democrats still have yet to recover. Their repeatedly precipitous blindness stems from the month long cliff hanger election that was highlighted by Florida’s “recount heaven”, and a forum where the citizenry learned something new. Today they can tell you all about chads.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a motion from the Bushies effectively ending the seesaw maneuvering of the Florida judiciary the dye was cast. It poked a big splinter into the better eye of the Democrats. The wood is still there and the subsequential elections have been a devastating lesson that they still haven’t learned.

When Jim Jeffords flipped from Republican to Independent and changed the balance of power in the Senate to thwart the duly elected Republican majority Democrats were downright gleeful. That same joy has appeared at every succeeding election. Unfortunately the positive expectations are merely the hopeful hype before the given election. It is the only time Democrats have been allowed to express those joyous feelings about Congress in over a dozen years. In each case the Democrats hopefulness has been dashed against the rocks. This year’s result is allegedly a sure thing! Once again polls indicate that the Republican control of everything is about to end, and it has Democrats gleeful once again!

What do you call someone who keeps making the same mistake over and over again? Are they simply optimistic, heavily in denial, wishful or insane? A good argument for a Democratic psychiatric disorder is that mentally challenged patients will perform the same behavior repeatedly expecting the result each time to be different. That may not exactly be clinical but it is the behavior of the mentally ill, and the Democrats.

In the 2004 Presidential election the gleeful Democrats were ready to celebrate Senator John Kerry’s victory over President Bush. Democrats that time relied on exit polls and by mid afternoon of Election Day they were celebrating and ready to pick out drapes for the coronation. When evening came the media, burned in 2000 by declaring early victory for Gore, steadied themselves enough not to say Kerry was going to win. They all thought it was coming based upon the exit polls however. They were wrong!

These are the same people dishing to you now the spin that the Democrats are a shoe in for one or both houses of Congress. I wouldn’t count my chickens just yet. History, and recent history at that, has shown us that polls are not as accurate as we are led to believe. Once they were a clever and entertaining method of suggesting most peoples likes and dislikes about everything from mustard to dancing shoes. However when it comes to the bottom line where life and death issues are at stake they are not so reliable. Each of the last four election cycles should demonstrate that to the electorate. However there is a very short memory span in politics. The Democrats are especially plagued by the malady.

Is it possible what the polls say will bear out finally reclaiming their validity come Election Day? Possibly. Judging from the behavior of the players today however history is poised to repeat itself once again to the dismay and potential destruction of one particular political party.