[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

ScottW wrote:
Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason! wrote:
ScottW wrote:
"Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!" wrote in message
oups.com...
Woo hoo!

Go Dems!

Higher taxes,
open borders,
and defeat,

All things the republicans were on track to fix, yes?

Poor, fearful little guy.

woopee!

I think you mean, 'Whoopee!'

But if that's what you want...

But, if anyone cares,
gay marriage took a beating.

What, no 'woopee'?

And in a really ironic twist of fate for the
Koster anti-Lieberman crowd, old Joe ends
up being the most sought after independent/dem
in recent memory.

Pull out whatever positives that you can. There can't be many for you.

Pelosi talked a bit about tax laws to punish outsourcing.
Not sure that is necessary, but a stronger message to China to allow a
free market currency valuation is a plus IMO.

You're not looking forward to the new conservative democratic party?

I indeed am very much looking forward to Dems haing a majority in
Congress. On Monday I was hoping for the House. Appreantly getting the
Senate (while being hopeful in the back of my mind) did not seem
realistic.

I'm looking forward to what I think (and hope) is a return to the
middle. I think that most Americans inhabit the middle with me. I'm
hoping that the divisive political games played by the republicans for
the past few years are over. It seems that unchecked far-right politics
was resoundingly rejected.

cheney, et al, are too far right for most Americans. Some Democrats are
too far left for most Americans. The Dems successfully exploited that
excluded middle this cycle.

Rather than energizing the far-left liberal base a la rovian politics,
I think one reason that the Dems handed the republicans their asses on
Tuesday was that they moved from left to the center. Perhaps if the
republicans move from the far-right to the center, they will do better
in the future. It doesn't appear that going to the far-right will be
successful at this point.

I also think the American population reinstated something that had been
missing recently: a check and balance of power. The republicans showed
no interest in bipartisan problem-solving. They ran roughshod over any
opposition. They have to now (as do the Dems) if they want to get
anything done. That's as it should be IMO. That's a very good thing.
When that is the case, you shave both extremes off and get legislation
more toward the center. Politics is, and should be (IMO) about rational
compromise.

It will be interesting to see how the Dems do (for example) with
earmarks (up 7x since 1998), spending (up by a very large amount since
2001), and so on. It may well be that they do a better job than you
would think. They certainly can't **** it up any more than the
republicans have in the past 6-8 years. Perhaps we are even seeing a
shift in what the parties stand for. It wouldn't be the first time. The
republicans of today seem to have little in common with the republican
moderates of days gone by.

I think that most people in the US fall into two categories (no
scientific basis, just IMO): fiscally conservative and socially
liberal, or fiscally conservative and socially conservative. I am
definitely in the former.

The republicans (and don't forget that I was one until 2002) have no
doubt been socially conservative. Nobody that's paid attention could
possibly say that they've been fiscally conservative under King George.

Pelosi has promised bipartisanship. bushie is suddenly a lot less
cocky-sounding. We'll see what happens from there.

Oh, and I'm guessing that we'll be hearing a lot fewer calls for an 'up
or down' vote from the republicans...;-)