Returns Day


Listen. Do you hear that sound? It sounds like concession and conciliation. Since the Republican loss of the U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate, in races eerily as close as the Republican Presidential victory of 2000, you might expect to hear weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. However, National Republicans and Democrats react differently in defeat.

One of places in which I was privileged to live for a period of time was Delaware. They have a quaint little tradition of convening a get-together of all politicians who have just been in an election; winners and losers. They appear together smiling in a festival setting, and burying the hatchet. It seems like the Republicans have had a lot of experience in that role as the perpetual minority in the State of Delaware. Today it appears that the national Republicans are honorary Delawareans.

The Conservatives have lived up to one characteristic of their Reagan style core values. They are taking it like a man! In losing both Houses of Congress they have shown their true colors. The numerous races in which voter irregularities, fraud, and the law provided opportunities for Republicans to scream for recounts, investigations, lawsuits and a protracted election day have all been left alone. In the other party, Democrats, who regularly find conspiracies under every election rock reacted, victimized in 2000, 2002, and 2004. The Conservatives, true to form, have taken the civil high road. Democrats would do well to learn from the example.

Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. Polls showed the bad mood of the country before December 2005 and they did little to nothing to change it in the ensuing 12 months. Some small amount of legislation, serious immigration reform perhaps, light footedness in Iraq, or simply showing Donald Rumsfeld the door prior to the election might have been enough to change at least the Senate outcome.

The “gang that couldn’t shoot strait” label that the Democrats plastered to the Republicans this campaign stuck, and the tone deaf White House hummed merrily along. You might have thought it was 1992 all over again with George H.W. Bush taking a peek at his watch during a crucial debate. The “I’ve got better places to be, don’t bother me now I’m in control”, arrogance that has been displayed by the Administration has come back to bite the whole party on the collective keester.

Unlike 2000 when the hooting, howling, foot dragging, and courtroom antics of the Florida Supreme Court was spurred by the Democrat Party, this year’s potential replay of fighting to the enth degree was avoided. You can give thanks for that to the Republican Party and their very nature. A win is a win and a loss is a loss. Who is the party with more class?

It is apparent and indicative of one underlying suspicion than many Americans, especially conservative voters, possess. The Republicans own the high road as much as they do the issue of the Country’s defense. Unfortunately, for those inclined, both of those issues will have to lead the Republican’s through a dark valley before they see the light of the majority again.

Expect the “new middle” to dictate, and hopefully some on the fringe will learn that cooperation, compromise and civility is the path citizens want to take. Since the late 1980’s the American electorate has been screaming for bipartisanship in their government. Both sides have rode that cresting wave once apiece. Neither side to date has learned the long term lesson. The Democrats now have the chance to change the tone in Washington along with the Republican President. Unfortunately, if history is an example, what is to come will not be pleasant.

Let’s see who has gotten the message that governance needs to come from a third party; or one centered in the middle. We saw it with Ross Perot, and no one has had the brains, nor dared make a go of it since. The raw opportunity has been waiting their patiently, and still exists some dozen plus years later. America is ready for the third party centrist to take control. California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might be the perfect example of this and displays the proper composition a Presidential candidate must possess to make Americans happy. Too bad he was born on foreign soil.

In 2008 the centrists may look like Hilary Clinton though she is really liberal, John McCain though he is a bit too much of a maverick for some Republicans, or Rudy Giuliani who has the same problem as McCain. However, to the rest of the country these folks would probably all be acceptable. Mrs. Clinton, who potentially would be the most polarizing would be vilified and might lead the country divisiveness back to the 1990’s all over again.

For today perhaps even in disgrace the Republicans can hold their heads high. Though they lost their way like the Democrats before them, numerous scandals have tapped the Republican decorum necessary to teach the country how to lose gracefully. That is the way your father’s Congress use to act. Thank goodness they finally found a way to bring back those core values. Could a reunified Congress be on the way? It could happen, but only if the country demands the same from Democrats.

Perhaps we should hold elections on Thursday’s. It’s a holiday more or less, so why not make it a long weekend by adopting a National Returns Day for the Friday afterward too? That would be a good start for the new Democrat Congress, and a sign to all Americans that our long political partisan gridlock nightmare is over!