Listening to some old Genesis tunes and heard the line in the title of this piece...seems pertinent! If the Republicans lose the House and/or the Senate on Tuesday, it will be for what they have not done rather than for what they have done. It certainly will not be a rousing cheer for Democratic policy. The D's have done an excellent job of nationalizing this election. However, when the R's did it in 1994, it was with a very clearly spelled out plan called the Contract with America. The Democrat nationalization of this election can be summarized with four letters: IRAQ. But outside of some loose suggestions made, they lack a clear plan for that cauldron. It is also disingenuous of the D's to say they can do much about Iraq short of cutting the purse strings for the military...that responsibility still lies with the Executive Branch. But then, elections are rarely about being genuine - it's about the power, stupid. One need look no further than the slate of candidates the D's are running that have put them in position to win back a side or two of the legislative assembly as testament that this is not liberalism ascendant. For the most part, the new Dems are far more conservative than the folks they will elect as their leaders if they succeed.
Being here in Tennessee, we have had a ring side seat to this phenomenon. Harold Ford, Jr. did such a good job of getting to the right of his Republican opponent, Bob Corker, that the latter had a hard time at the outset getting any traction. Jr. is now pro-life, pro-gun, pro-defense etc. etc. - he never misses an opportunity to tell us that he is a Christian and to throw in a Bible verse or two. I suspect that he's actually overplayed this hand to the point that folks in this good state are tired of it. At the last debate in Nashville, Jr. wrapped up his remarks by thanking the audience and Vanderbilt University where the debate was held and then, pointing to the ceiling, he thanked the "Lord Almighty" for giving him this chance. I hope they issue those airline barf-bags when you go into one of these things, because I would have needed one had I been present.
So what is a tough race between a Democrat and a Republican about? Well, The Tennessean (aka Pravda on the Cumberland) endorsed Jr. several weeks ago. Fair enough. This same group also defended the John Kerry "military people are stupid" comment too. Now we are told in today's headline that "Senate Vote Seen as Racial Milepost." Ohh, I get it, if we don't elect Jr. we are racists! I wonder if the Baltimore Sun sees the race in Maryland the same way - if so, maybe Steele can slip by Cardin. The race issue came to the fore after an ad aired by the RNC was sited as being racist by the D's. How so? Well, a white girl cooingly asks Harold to call her. This outrageous behaviour was clearly designed to incite white people back to the battlements to protect Southern womanhood from the evil designs of the black man. We shouldn't vote against Harold, we should lynch him! From where I sit...and from looking at the polls, it wasn't the ad that turned the tide against Jr., it was the response. The response was more insulting than the ad because through a torturous leap of logic, everyone in the state is suddenly made into a bunch of yahoos that just needed to be reminded of our Confederate obligations. We are long past that. We are able to elect a black man in this state or anywhere else for that matter as long as he or she shares our values and will represent us fairly.
There are pockets of idiots in the South (and everywhere else for that matter) that still look at Harold Ford, Jr. or Michael Steele and viscerally react saying "I can't vote for him 'cause he's a n----er." But my sense is that the vast majority of the South and certainly the good people of Tennessee have moved beyond that. And I find it ironic that the issue is brought up by the very people who should least want to bring it up. But their purpose for doing so is to dredge up white guilt as they wrap themselves in cloaks of righteousness. It is an intellectual lynching undeserving of merit. What the Tennessean fails to realize is that if Jr. does go on to lose, as it appears likely he will, it will not be because he is black...but it could well be because he chose to make an issue of his race when everyone else had left that behind.
On the larger scale, I am not scared of Nancy Pelosi becoming the Speaker of the House. (I would be terrified if she were the Speaker and Hillary was becoming the President!) I look to our Constitution and am relieved at the balance of power. There is no way that the D's can continue to mask their true colors for two years. They'll do something goofy like try to nationalize medicine or start a bunch of investigations or raise taxes that will get them tossed out in two years. This is not an endorsement of the conservative "let's punish the Republican's" strategy, merely a humble nod to the kindly document that shines so brightly from the vaults of the National Archives. What they will not do, and the public will get their bi-annual civics lesson, is fix the Iraq situation.
After the Republicans executed much of the Contract with America, they settled into power and have done very little proactively or dynamically since. Spending on pet projects, one of the great perks of power has risen dramatically even while the nation is at war. New bureaucracies have been created - none have been cut. They have lost their vision and their soul. If they spend a couple of years in the woods, it will hopefully reconnect them to their values. If they do retain power, I pray that they get the message that the reason for their narrow scrape had nothing to do with what the Dems were pushing and everything to do with their inaction over the last six to eight years.
Being here in Tennessee, we have had a ring side seat to this phenomenon. Harold Ford, Jr. did such a good job of getting to the right of his Republican opponent, Bob Corker, that the latter had a hard time at the outset getting any traction. Jr. is now pro-life, pro-gun, pro-defense etc. etc. - he never misses an opportunity to tell us that he is a Christian and to throw in a Bible verse or two. I suspect that he's actually overplayed this hand to the point that folks in this good state are tired of it. At the last debate in Nashville, Jr. wrapped up his remarks by thanking the audience and Vanderbilt University where the debate was held and then, pointing to the ceiling, he thanked the "Lord Almighty" for giving him this chance. I hope they issue those airline barf-bags when you go into one of these things, because I would have needed one had I been present.
So what is a tough race between a Democrat and a Republican about? Well, The Tennessean (aka Pravda on the Cumberland) endorsed Jr. several weeks ago. Fair enough. This same group also defended the John Kerry "military people are stupid" comment too. Now we are told in today's headline that "Senate Vote Seen as Racial Milepost." Ohh, I get it, if we don't elect Jr. we are racists! I wonder if the Baltimore Sun sees the race in Maryland the same way - if so, maybe Steele can slip by Cardin. The race issue came to the fore after an ad aired by the RNC was sited as being racist by the D's. How so? Well, a white girl cooingly asks Harold to call her. This outrageous behaviour was clearly designed to incite white people back to the battlements to protect Southern womanhood from the evil designs of the black man. We shouldn't vote against Harold, we should lynch him! From where I sit...and from looking at the polls, it wasn't the ad that turned the tide against Jr., it was the response. The response was more insulting than the ad because through a torturous leap of logic, everyone in the state is suddenly made into a bunch of yahoos that just needed to be reminded of our Confederate obligations. We are long past that. We are able to elect a black man in this state or anywhere else for that matter as long as he or she shares our values and will represent us fairly.
There are pockets of idiots in the South (and everywhere else for that matter) that still look at Harold Ford, Jr. or Michael Steele and viscerally react saying "I can't vote for him 'cause he's a n----er." But my sense is that the vast majority of the South and certainly the good people of Tennessee have moved beyond that. And I find it ironic that the issue is brought up by the very people who should least want to bring it up. But their purpose for doing so is to dredge up white guilt as they wrap themselves in cloaks of righteousness. It is an intellectual lynching undeserving of merit. What the Tennessean fails to realize is that if Jr. does go on to lose, as it appears likely he will, it will not be because he is black...but it could well be because he chose to make an issue of his race when everyone else had left that behind.
On the larger scale, I am not scared of Nancy Pelosi becoming the Speaker of the House. (I would be terrified if she were the Speaker and Hillary was becoming the President!) I look to our Constitution and am relieved at the balance of power. There is no way that the D's can continue to mask their true colors for two years. They'll do something goofy like try to nationalize medicine or start a bunch of investigations or raise taxes that will get them tossed out in two years. This is not an endorsement of the conservative "let's punish the Republican's" strategy, merely a humble nod to the kindly document that shines so brightly from the vaults of the National Archives. What they will not do, and the public will get their bi-annual civics lesson, is fix the Iraq situation.
After the Republicans executed much of the Contract with America, they settled into power and have done very little proactively or dynamically since. Spending on pet projects, one of the great perks of power has risen dramatically even while the nation is at war. New bureaucracies have been created - none have been cut. They have lost their vision and their soul. If they spend a couple of years in the woods, it will hopefully reconnect them to their values. If they do retain power, I pray that they get the message that the reason for their narrow scrape had nothing to do with what the Dems were pushing and everything to do with their inaction over the last six to eight years.