I have to say, my faith in my fellow voters has been restored after Tuesday. At least we sent the only message we could, shit’s got to change. Seems like Washington got the message loud and clear, and I’m glad Rumsfeld was sent packing, but it’s only a start. Cheney’s a fucking loon as well, and he needs to find himself a nice retirment hobby at the NRA’s shooting range out there off I-66 in Chantilly.
We’ve been here before, and it wasn’t that long ago either. I remember clearly how we felt about the situation in 1994 when we threw all the Democrats out, I was working in Congress at the time. So much of the same excitement at the desire for a regime change way back then. Now it’s 12 fucking years later and this country’s a goddamn mess, so many unfulfilled promises and stolen liberties. I talked to several of the incoming Congressmen personally back then, and many told me then that they believed they could fix social security and privatize it within 8-10 years. What happened? All they did was made sure its life support was still plugged into the wall for the last decade. 2300 soldiers dead for a war predicated on lies, and we don’t even know why we’re fighting it. We’re in tremendous debt when just 10 years ago the budget was balanced. Nearly 3,000 innocent people killed on 9/11 due either to an inept administration or caused by it, and we get the TSA, the NSA monitoring our phone calls, and the PATRIOT act renewed well beyond its reasonable shelf life, all adding up to an unprecedented level of government intrusion into our personal lives. We didn’t even know how good we had it back in the late 90’s, because we were all so distracted with one naughty intern’s relationship with America Inc.’s CEO.
As much as it was good to see this change happen, I don’t think the Democrats of the early-90’s have the answer to the problems we face today. I sure hope they’ve taken steps to modernize their approach over the last decade, or else we’re all just going to get taxed into oblivion to pay for this mess and somehow, we still won’t be any better off. We’ve granted the Democratic party an opportunity to demonstrate that they are the party of the people. Let’s hope they don’t screw it up like their congressional predecessors.