I am not a political side-joiner or flag-waver – I fly just one flag and it belongs to all of us. I have views and positions on most issues – foreign and domestic policy, social and fiscal and what, exactly, the American Dream is. Some align with the Democratic Party’s stated position and some more closely align with the Republican Party’s stated issues. However, both parties have not behaved as though they have any positions and, in a very real sense, once in office our representatives all have just one position – keeping their cushy jobs. That said, egregious action by what has evolved into a veritable third party has taken an already messy experiment in self-rule to untenable extremes – and, once again, the people have said, “enough.”
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I have written about these trying political times, about the division, the weaponization, the demonization and how power corrupts – and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For decades our elected representatives have been giving up more and more power to the executive and making the president much more powerful than our founders ever intended. More recently, the judicial has been rubber-stamping this transfer of power. While this gradual movement might have seemed justified, reasonable or even necessary to “get things done” in a country with millions of diverse voices vying to be heard, what happens in the extreme when one person does control everything is that those voices are silenced. Silence enough of them for long enough and the people will have something to say about it.
I have also written that as fragile as this little experiment in self-rule is, we have a Constitution that has proven time and time again to be strong – really strong. Does it get violated? Regularly. Is it perfect? Not yet. Has it withstood corruption, world wars, a civil war and a political pendulum that swings wildly without destroying our foundation? Fuck yes. But it relies heavily on “cooler heads.” It is built on the peaceful transfer of power, on reasonable people – on smart people. Occasionally, loud voices of radical change have appealed to enough of the people to “try something new.” Sometimes, radically new. We have seen extremes colored as patriotism in the past, and one need not look too far back to see it. But cooler heads prevailed – enough of them – and the Constitution survived to fight another day.
Last night, the people spoke. They were not voting for a
particular party, and they were not, necessarily, voting against the tenets of
the other party; they were rebuking deviation from those tenets, they were
rebuking unchecked power and they were reclaiming a government built of the people,
by the people and for the people – all of us. Now there is a lot of work to do.
If the Democrats do not understand why their party approval rating, despite a
huge mid-term win, is at a record low (as is the Republican Party’s), they will
not do what the people – all of them, in aggregate – sent them there to do.
Does that include efforts at accountability? Absolutely, but we did not send them
there to seek vengeance, we sent them there to work for us, to get things done.
We are tired of fighting ourselves. Not tired of the last two years, not the
last 10, we are tired of the overt no-compromise, control and conquer, winner
take all, fuck the losers trend that has been standard operating procedure for
at least this entire millennium. And, we are tired of the graft. Too much of
our money has found its way into the pockets of those who have more than they
could ever spend; it is sickening. However, my sincere hope is that we do not
dwell there. Look at it, mitigate the most egregious acts, and do what we sent them
there to do. If they did not hear it last night, let me be clear – this is our
country and our government. You political careerists work for us, you serve at
our pleasure – and clearly, we are not pleased.
I hope lessons have been learned, but I am pretty sure this is not the last time our Constitution will be attacked. It has been fighting for us for a long time, last night the cavalry arrived.
