Getting In Touch My Centerist Self
Dear Republicans:
I realize we don't agree on much if anything at all. Common ground is not what I call the difference in our politics, and my feelings on the matter is I shouldn't have to confirm to you and you shouldn't have to be thrilled and confirm to me either. So, in the spirit of Christmas, and because I know your leaders won't listen to me anyway, I offer a piece of advice: Be careful.
No, that's not a threat. You see, from '92-'94, we had the majority in all the branches (excepting judicial, maybe) of our government, and we Democrats blew it. Big time. In comes 1994 and Newt Gingrinch and his cronies, and for our political landscape in Congress, it's been downhill ever since. Some would argue that this happened because we 'lost touch with America and American values', others would say it's because Clinton got 'favors of the wrong kind' from his intern and so many scandals bogged us down. I discard both theories, it's what gets said when you lose on every election, full of political doublespeak without any real meaning. It's like 'moral values', damn vague and left for us to wonder what the hell that means.
I'm digressing again. Anyhow, the thing that sunk us in '94 is our plans to change society failed utterly. Our agenda for the 'far left' got out of hand, alienating our centerists and we didn't get hardly anything done that Clinton promised we would, and he spent the next 6 years returning to center. You've won both Houses of Congress, you've won the Presidency for another four years, enjoy it. But as the old saying goes, 'consume wine, don't let the wine consume you.' To translate that, don't let a soon to be lame duck get in the way of getting things done. And while you're free to pass anything you like, keep in mind that will bite you in the butt too if you lose touch with your center, or even the will of Americans.
You don't have it easy. You've got a president who's under heavy fire for his war stance, (I never agreed with the premise of the war, personally,) down to the fact that his Secretary of Defense can't suppress his need to make tart, cute comments like, "Armor doesn't guarantee protection. A tank can still be blown up," while true, doesn't help the issue any, really. (I was waiting for the "so suck it in, soldier," after that, personally. I think Rummy's missed his true calling: drill sargeant.) So, get what you need passed, make sure it's reasonable, because any failures will come right to your door. You can't blame liberals for our policymaking any more really, you've got the majority. All we can really do is swamp legislation or insert a few amendments to it, if we can find an issue which we agree with you on. Keep in mind, despite all your wins, your president was elected by the shortest victory margin of a lot of incumbents.
Best of luck to you. We'll be back in 2006, and again in 2008. Hell, let's face it, we won't leave you alone. Which is why you need to be careful. Oh, and the blistering political commentary: that's not going to be absent from this blog. Being liberal in a rather conservative controlled branches of government gives me a lot to do by way of criticisms. I'd get used to it, if I were you. We endured it during the Clinton years.
Politely and in a giving mood, the AWM wolf dragon,
Sol