Last Election Day the American people spoke up and asserted with a voice heard loud and clear that they wanted change.
The wave of Democratic victories comes as an affirmation of a Democratic Party standing tall for responsibility, reform and competence. There is little denying, however, that it was also, and perhaps to a greater extent, a repudiation of a Republican Party content to wallow in the mud of irresponsibility, corruption, and incompetence. The Democratic Party now has more of an opportunity than a mandate, and if it stays true to its ideals it will turn this country in the right direction.
First let's compare irresponsibility to responsibility. The Republican Party has been blatantly irresponsible. It used faulty math to justify tax breaks during a time of war, because it evidently believed the American people shouldn't have to sacrifice while their soldiers did. Domestic spending didn't shrink either, and now we face enormous deficits as our population ages and requires even more money. Some Republican mandates, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, have been underfunded.
The Republicans never leveled with us on Iraq, and the Republican Congress always refused to ask the hard questions necessary for finding a solution. Bush may have altered his course in very minute ways occasionally, but Congress never pressured him toward a significant correction.
Republican appointments misused and ignored science to pander to social conservatives on Plan B and stem cell research.
Democrats understand that controlling the world's most powerful government means being responsible. The Democrats will realize that when you send troops to die for you, you need to actually pay for quality healthcare and armor with money you actually have. They will realize that, contrary to Dick Cheney's beliefs, the deficit matters. They will fund controversial measures if they manage to get them over the President's veto.
Democrats will ask the hard questions on Iraq. They will not do what Republican fear mongers said they would do and call for an immediate withdrawal or some equally brash policy. Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has assured the nation that there will be no wanton impeachment attempts on President Bush.
Democrats will listen to scientists and push for cures using real science, not politicized talking points.
The stench of corruption wafting off Washington also stunk to plenty of voters. Individual scandals plagued places like Ohio, but from Tom DeLay to Jack Abramoff to Mark Foley, the smell of corruption and entitlement descended on the national Republican Party as well.
Have Democrats historically been immune to corruption? No. Yet it is worth noting that it took the Republicans only 12 years to become as snotty and corrupt as the Democrats did in 40 years. The people have every reason to expect a less corrupt Congress in this first two years of returned Democrat control.
Also on the subject of mud: the Republicans tried in every way possible to slander their opponents and mislead the American people this election season. In Massachusetts, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey continually suggested that because Democratic candidate Deval Patrick worked effectively for some unsavory clients as a defense attorney (which would be, you know, his job), that his election would make the streets less safe. In Tennessee, the GOP ran blatantly racist attack ads.
In Missouri, a group called Missourians Against Human Cloning tried to scare voters by pretending that the stem cell initiative there could be, in any conceivable way, about human cloning (it wasn't), and that the Democrats wanted to pressure young women to give up their fetuses, among other pernicious falsities.
By the election of a new Democratic Congress, the American people have mostly said no to blatant distortion and negativity (note: the GOP did win the senate race in Tennessee).
I save the issue of competence for last because competence is something any government needs, and this one has sorely lacked it. Could it be that a group of people who ran as anti-government not so long ago so loathed the thing they ran that they didn't pay any attention to actually running it? Whatever the reason, the Republicans in the White House and in Congress never made the bureaucracies work for the people funding them, unless to, say, open up national parks for lumber companies or stall on Plan B and keep it from getting to the women who needed it.
The mess during hurricane Katrina exemplifies the failure of a part of the federal government, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), that worked fine under President Clinton. Iraq shows the failure of an administration to see reality and the failure of both an executive team and Congress to force that reality to be seen. Books such as Bob Woodward's State of Denial summarize nicely how such mentalities inevitably lead to failure. The American people rejected this foolishness on Nov. 7.
The Democrats will work to enact the 9/11 commission's recommendations to make this nation safer. They will try to force Bush to see reality in Iraq and try to make sure the federal government actually works. They have a host of other good ideas, such as raising the federal minimum wage, which will help ordinary Americans.
On Nov. 7, Americans turned out to turn away a Republican Party too busy protecting its own power to care about the country that elected it. The American people gave the Democratic Party in the next two years the ability to start turning the direction of this country back to one that works for the people. There is no reason why they should not be expected to do so.
Scott Dodds is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He is a member of the Tufts Democrats.
