It's about competence

I have no idea what will happen on Tuesday. Most unbiased observers seem to agree that a Democratic takeover in the house is likely, and a takeover in the Senate less so, but not out of the realm of possibilities. While that seems to line up with the general consensus, I have been around for enough elections not to put too much credence in such predictions. Besides nobody ever got rich by underestimating the Democratic Party’s ability to screw itself when all was going their way.

That being said I believe that this country needs a change in the legislative branch like never before. Not because the Democratic Party has earned such an opportunity, but rather because Democracy can only function when there is a healthy opposition. Our constitution is unique in the clear delineation made between the three branches of government and in the amount of faith given to the concept of checks and balances. The president is not a monarch but rather an equal partner in the governing of this nation.

However this administration has made unprecedented power grabs from the legislative branch, power grabs in which the Republican congress has been eagerly complicit. Whatever your position on domestic spying, detention and torture, or war powers may be one thing is clear; the last time the chief executive of this land wielded such concentrated unchecked power he was overthrown in a revolution.

And similar to the King George of old, our current chief executive has governed, for the most part, by fiat. Independent of public opinion and scrutiny he has charted a bewildering course of governance with a rubber-stamp congress in tow. Free of any oversight he has taken this country into an ill-advised Middle Eastern adventure which even by the rosiest views has evolved into a bungled, mishandled quagmire out of which the only victors seem to be those companies with the foresight to bankroll his previous campaign.

It is of interest to note that during WWII (a conflict whose duration is now shorter then the one in which we are currently engaged) a little-known senator from Missouri made his name by chairing a commission that went after war profiteers, and other companies that had bilked the government during the war. Harry Truman investigated them all, Republican or Democrat, and had no compunction to taking down those who were connected to the President. He rightly called such persons traitors and as a result of his commission many of those under scrutiny went to jail. Today Truman would be shouted down by the right-wing noise machine as unpatriotic, and as unsupportive of the troops, while those who profit by putting those same troops at risk lobby for tax reform so that they may save their ill gotten gains.

And what of those who directed this Arabian misadventure. For getting almost every aspect of the war wrong (WMDs, the amount of troops needed, the support of the Iraqi people, the lack of any post-invasion planning, how long do I need to go on?) not only are they not run out of town on the rails but they are showered with praise and awards by the commander in chief and his lackeys on the hill. When they predicted that we would be greeted with flowers and parades perhaps this is to what they were referring.

The Democratic Party is complicit only in their inability to run a presidential candidate that was even the slightest bit presidential. With an iron clad grip on all functions of government for the past six years the sorry state of this nation is the result of unchecked Republican arrogance, nothing else. Given the lack of any other option the only place to turn is to the Democrats, because this congress has failed on every front to keep the wild and dangerous ambitions of this president in check. Like a small child in a Toys R’ Us, from time to time the chief executive must be told no, instead this congress has bought him everything he has desired and we get to pay the bill, both in dollars and in blood.

While the Democratic Party has made a coherent argument for legislative oversight, and of the return of competence to government, the only refuge the Republicans have in turn is childish name-calling, personal attacks, and fear mongering. These are the last-ditch efforts of an organization in full-on panic mode. Without reason, common sense, or the facts on their side they throw the kitchen sink hoping that even though the majority of Americans don’t even know who Nancy Pelosi is, if they can call her a an unpatriotic liberal who doesn’t support the troops, that will be what sticks. Hoping in the end that by waving the flag and tugging on patriotic heartstrings most Americans will realize the only way to support the troops is by re-electing those who put them in harms way, and placing a yellow ribbon on the back of an SUV getting 15 mpg.

The shrinking middle class, corprate greed, a growing and invasive theocracy, rampant political corruption, Katrina, the inaccessibility of health care, the denial of science in all realms educational, medicinal, and environmental are all good reasons in and of themselves to kick out the Republican congress on Tuesday. But greater than all those reasons is competence and accountability. For many years now the Republican Party has run on the idea that government should be run like a business. Well what if it was? With all that has gone on in the last six years the United States’ stock price would be trading at record lows today. And the stockholders of any such company would have jettisoned the CEO and the board a long time ago.

Democracy demands accountability, the nation demands competence. Our government has given us neither, and thus deserves to be replaced.