Miami, FL – At the risk of sounding a pessimist, I dare voice out a hopefully wrong opinion that the results of the November 2 mid-term elections in the US ushered nothing but a more formidable gridlock in American government for at least the next two years. Unlike most defeated Democrats and politicians who pretend to offer the olive branch to triumphant Republicans and their Tea-Party sponsors, and thump that now is the time to work together, I find it hard to comprehend how exactly will that play out. Again, no pessimist me, but I’m just being pragmatic in my common-sense vision of the United States’ political future.
Why, Tuesday’s Republican resurgence did nothing but polarize further the American political divide. As much as I would like to ride along the bandwagon of cheers for bipartisanship, the facts to me point to the opposite direction. The Republicans/Tea Party’s snatching of 60 House seats booted out and impacted more the so-called Democratic blue dogs whose 52 members from the same number of congressional districts are moderate and conservative Dems (another oxymoron for me like saying bitter sugar). The GOP victories in those 60 districts upped the party’s seats to 245 in the 435-member lower US chamber.
That means the 190 Dems that are left in the House are theoretically more left leaning and that can dash the hopes of advocates of “bipartisanship” and “cooperation”. The 245 conservative members and 190 progressive congressmen are simply both on diametrically opposed ends.
The US Senate is not far from that bleak picture. With 52 Dems and 46 Republicans and 2 Independents in the upper legislature, the only certain accomplishment Americans can look forward to in the Upper House is a stalemate in passing bills. The US public should be thankful Republicans did not pick up more than 6 seats to get 50 seats. That prospect of an equal 50-50 number in the 100-seat chamber would have been a nightmare to Vice President Biden who would then be spending a lot more time in Capitol Hill as the Senate’s presiding officer (Yes, Sarah Palin, presiding officer to break ties, not “in charge” of the Senate, whew!).
So I wait with bated breath just exactly how the Dems and the GOPers, or more accurately, the more emboldened Tea Partiers plan to flesh out their pledge of “cooperation”. I wish I can pitch in some ideas to that end but it is hard to see common ground between the two ideologically opposing camps.
Cases in point: Immigration, government spending, debt ceiling, capping the deficit, employment generation. Best of luck to President Obama who pledges to find “bipartisan” solutions to some of these issues, particularly immigration.
The Left and the Right in the US have been so polarized that sensible leaders from both the Democratic and Republican Parties, more especially the latter such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee are relegated to the sidelines by intellectually deficient Tea Party insurgents such as Sarah Palin who does not even know what Hamas is and why North and South Korea came about (but she can see Russia from her Alaskan house) and Christine O’Donnell (who fortunately lost in the Delaware Senate race) who is still now looking for the phrase “separation of church and state” in the US Constitution. Dios Mio.
An example of the difficulty of cooperation coming to fruition in the upcoming US Congress is the position of our newly elected Senator from Florida, tea party pretty boy Marco Rubio who did not support, when he was not yet senator, the Dream Act that would have paved the way for US citizenship of deportable alien students. Now we expect him, when he goes to Washington DC in January 2011, to “cooperate” with the Dems who would surely push for their social justice agenda Marco Rubio so despises?
There are a few things that can probably be certain as a result of this power shift in the US legislature: Big Business is back, the working class is pushed back, social security and education can be privatized, retirement age can be pushed further up to 70 from the present 65, healthcare reform can be repealed, and yes, immigration reform can be just a dream. I just wished the US electorate thought about this before November 2.
What does this mean to the average Filipino? Take social security and retirement age as examples. If US social security privatization and retirement age increase happen, that means longer wait time for Filipino-Americans to retire back in the Philippines and be re-united with their families and friends. I wish the estimated two million Filipino and Filipino Americans in the US thought about this before November 2.
Critics will probably dismiss my thoughts as whining so I will add a couple more thoughts of what could have been: Young people (18-29) could have turned out and more than that, young Democratic registered voters could have turned out and changed our discussion now. It did not happen. Instead, only 11 percent of November 2 voters were young, compared to 18 percent in 2008 presidential elections. Only 3 percent of those who voted November 2 were first time voters. In the Sunshine State of Florida, only 40 percent of the total voting population turned out and that includes the early voters. Dios Mio, again.
But really, my grim scenarios are not baseless fears but a realistic evaluation of future probabilities. Gridlock and zero positive accomplishments in the new US Congress may be possible but they do not have to happen if the impatient US electorate swing the political pendulum again (as it seems they are wont to each election) in 2012 to give Obama, and in 2013 to give the Dems, a chance to finish their platform of change and progressive policies. But the Democratic party has to overhaul their messaging right again.
Why, Tuesday’s Republican resurgence did nothing but polarize further the American political divide. As much as I would like to ride along the bandwagon of cheers for bipartisanship, the facts to me point to the opposite direction. The Republicans/Tea Party’s snatching of 60 House seats booted out and impacted more the so-called Democratic blue dogs whose 52 members from the same number of congressional districts are moderate and conservative Dems (another oxymoron for me like saying bitter sugar). The GOP victories in those 60 districts upped the party’s seats to 245 in the 435-member lower US chamber.
That means the 190 Dems that are left in the House are theoretically more left leaning and that can dash the hopes of advocates of “bipartisanship” and “cooperation”. The 245 conservative members and 190 progressive congressmen are simply both on diametrically opposed ends.
The US Senate is not far from that bleak picture. With 52 Dems and 46 Republicans and 2 Independents in the upper legislature, the only certain accomplishment Americans can look forward to in the Upper House is a stalemate in passing bills. The US public should be thankful Republicans did not pick up more than 6 seats to get 50 seats. That prospect of an equal 50-50 number in the 100-seat chamber would have been a nightmare to Vice President Biden who would then be spending a lot more time in Capitol Hill as the Senate’s presiding officer (Yes, Sarah Palin, presiding officer to break ties, not “in charge” of the Senate, whew!).
So I wait with bated breath just exactly how the Dems and the GOPers, or more accurately, the more emboldened Tea Partiers plan to flesh out their pledge of “cooperation”. I wish I can pitch in some ideas to that end but it is hard to see common ground between the two ideologically opposing camps.
Cases in point: Immigration, government spending, debt ceiling, capping the deficit, employment generation. Best of luck to President Obama who pledges to find “bipartisan” solutions to some of these issues, particularly immigration.
The Left and the Right in the US have been so polarized that sensible leaders from both the Democratic and Republican Parties, more especially the latter such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee are relegated to the sidelines by intellectually deficient Tea Party insurgents such as Sarah Palin who does not even know what Hamas is and why North and South Korea came about (but she can see Russia from her Alaskan house) and Christine O’Donnell (who fortunately lost in the Delaware Senate race) who is still now looking for the phrase “separation of church and state” in the US Constitution. Dios Mio.
An example of the difficulty of cooperation coming to fruition in the upcoming US Congress is the position of our newly elected Senator from Florida, tea party pretty boy Marco Rubio who did not support, when he was not yet senator, the Dream Act that would have paved the way for US citizenship of deportable alien students. Now we expect him, when he goes to Washington DC in January 2011, to “cooperate” with the Dems who would surely push for their social justice agenda Marco Rubio so despises?
There are a few things that can probably be certain as a result of this power shift in the US legislature: Big Business is back, the working class is pushed back, social security and education can be privatized, retirement age can be pushed further up to 70 from the present 65, healthcare reform can be repealed, and yes, immigration reform can be just a dream. I just wished the US electorate thought about this before November 2.
What does this mean to the average Filipino? Take social security and retirement age as examples. If US social security privatization and retirement age increase happen, that means longer wait time for Filipino-Americans to retire back in the Philippines and be re-united with their families and friends. I wish the estimated two million Filipino and Filipino Americans in the US thought about this before November 2.
Critics will probably dismiss my thoughts as whining so I will add a couple more thoughts of what could have been: Young people (18-29) could have turned out and more than that, young Democratic registered voters could have turned out and changed our discussion now. It did not happen. Instead, only 11 percent of November 2 voters were young, compared to 18 percent in 2008 presidential elections. Only 3 percent of those who voted November 2 were first time voters. In the Sunshine State of Florida, only 40 percent of the total voting population turned out and that includes the early voters. Dios Mio, again.
But really, my grim scenarios are not baseless fears but a realistic evaluation of future probabilities. Gridlock and zero positive accomplishments in the new US Congress may be possible but they do not have to happen if the impatient US electorate swing the political pendulum again (as it seems they are wont to each election) in 2012 to give Obama, and in 2013 to give the Dems, a chance to finish their platform of change and progressive policies. But the Democratic party has to overhaul their messaging right again.
