Ok, I figure I’ll start with a short diatribe regarding the election. Am I happy with the results? Well, logic holds that I am a registered Republican, and that IS the case. In many election years, I would be frothing at the mouth with what has happened. Look at our government as it stands to appear in January 2009, it hasn’t been THIS liberal in nearly 30 years. As much as I disagreed with Bill Clinton’s policies, the next Adminstration and Congress will make Billy Boy seem pretty middle-o’-the-road.
So, why am I not ultraincensed? My economic and social values were instilled during my college years, specifically during the 1994 Mid-Term Elections. Republicans sent a clear message of fiscal responsibility and less government, led by Newt Gingrich, and the House of Representatives went squarely to the Republican Party. Unfortunately, it appears that eight years of George W. Bush corrupted the GOP. Scandal after scandal eroded confidence that Republicans stood for conservatism. Granted, every Republican scandal was placed Front Page of every newspaper and periodical, and led the Evening News broadcasts…while Democratic scandals? Where were they? Oh they were there, just with Media cooperation and many more years of learning how to cover their tracks, it never got to the people.
The Republican Party has become a party without an identity, focused on helping themselves and their friends, rather than doing the best thing for America.
While I’m thoroughly disgusted that we’ve now established a group in Washington that’s as close to Socialist as we’ve ever been (even with FDR), I’m hoping for a turnaround, a cleansing, a renaissance of the fiscal conservatism that ruled 1990′s GOP Politics. It will be a long two years, but with a taste of the alternate, and a renewed sense of urgency, I think it will happen.
