REALITY- After the results of the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, many people have decried this election as a resurgence of The Republican Party. And I guess to some extent it was.
The Tuesday before last The Republican Party gained control of next U.S. House of Representatives. As of last count The G.O.P. (Republicans...they go by so many different names) gained an impressive 60 seats there and 6 more seats in The United States Senate. Leaving the 112th Congress of The United States a divided one.
The Republicans will have control over The House of Reps while The Democrats maintain control of The United States Senate.
Wait What? In January when the next congress convenes The Democrats will still control The Senate and The White House. To listen to the media coverage of this past election you would have thought it was a Republican sweep. It wasn't.
When the 112th Congress of The United States comes together The Republican Party will hold a 43 seat advantage in The House of Reps.
The Democrats currently enjoy a 77 seat advantage, and with that margin The Democrats still had to fight to pass bills like Healthcare Reform and The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the most sweeping change to financial regulation in the United States since the Great Depression.
That Bill passed The House by a mere 21 votes. So by that example The Republicans don't have that large of an advantage after all.
43 seats may not be enough to repeal what they call "Obamacare". A flippant term for legislation that allows those with pre-existing medical conditions access to health insurance.
43 seats may not be enough to preserve the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy which received due but perhaps ill-timed attention leading up to the November 2nd election.
Over the past two years The Democrats have had to fight for every political inch while they have been in control of the White House, The House of Reps, and The Senate. And if The Democrats know what is good for the continued employment they will fight harder for those political inches.
Watching the coverage of The 2010 Mid-Term Elections, the media would have you take away only that The Republicans have somehow seized control over the entire United States Government.
Nope, just The House of Representatives. And if history tells us anything, that may not be enough.
All that having been read. Now that The United States has moved away, once again, from one party rule, Both sides of the political spectrum should now understand that they need to work together in order to further serve the needs of all of the American people not just the needs of those whom contribute the most cash to their respective campaigns.
This does not mean however that The Democrats should just do what The Republicans want them to do, as a lot of people seem to define bi-partisan cooperation these days.
No in fact just the opposite. This brings me to my final point of the day and it is why The Democrats lost control of The House and why they failed to gain further momentum in The Senate.
The Democrats lost control of The House of Representatives not because the people didn't agree with the positions and policies of the candidates in question but because the Average American Voter did not believe that The Democrats would follow through on their promises.
Because The Democrats have been missing something.
Something that they had had going into the 2006 Mid-Term Elections.
Something that carried them through The 2008 Presidential Election to the tune of total control over the House, The Senate, and landed them the first African-American President in United States history.
The thing that The Democrats have been without this past year is
Marbles, Huevos...
The Democrats need to get some Balls.
The Republicans fight their political battles with little else and American voters are attracted to that.
It's high time that The Democrats rediscover their own "Testicular Fortitude" otherwise Barack Obama may find himself a one term president faster than we can all yell "Marbles".
And As Always,
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