Election Special

Honey and I are back from the polling booth, having exercised our prerogative as citizens, performed our civic duty, etc., and so forth.  
We waited until 9:45 to allow the folks who were voting before work to clear out, and that worked well.  There were lines at each alphabetical segment of the registration desk, but they moved quickly.  By the time we signed in and got our access codes there were voting machines available.

However the votes add up tonight, I will not be completely satisfied, and I suspect that most people will feel the same way, although not necessarily for the same reasons.

Since I am a strict constructionist, State’s rights, fiscal conservative, and a human rights liberal, there has not been a president in my lifetime that fit my point of view, and I doubt that there ever will be.

The good news, or bad, depending on your way of thinking, is that who is elected President isn’t nearly as important as it is made out to be. 

Presidents, like football quarterbacks and baseball pitchers, get credit or blame for a multitude of things over which they have little or no control.  George Bush, hog-tied by a Democratic Congress, is still getting the blame for things ( the mortgage  crisis, for example)  that were the bad ideas of the legislative branch.  Barack Obama hasn’t been able to accomplish anything significant – good or bad – since Republicans gained control of the House.

However the presidential election goes, it is fairly certain that Congress will remain pretty much the same.  Republicans should retain control of the House, and may gain a seat or two in the Senate, but not enough to achieve a majority.  That sort of Congress will either provide a buffer or a roadblock. We know that will happen, we’ve seen it before, so why don’t the national parties work harder to get their congressional candidates elected? 

The only explanation I can offer is that except for the “Contract With America” in 1994 or the Tea Party movement in 2010, congressional elections are much more  local than national.  The electorate may scream about the deficit and the national debt, but they will elect the guy who dips into the pork barrel and brings money back to the district.  They may know that he is a bastard and a crook, but he continues to be reelected because he’s their crooked bastard. 

I’m trying to take a more Libertarian attitude - “The best government is one that doesn’t do anything at all.”  But I realize that once in a while, we might need to accomplish something.