While many have hailed the newly elected Congress as the rebirth of the Democratic Party and the beginning of a new, more enlightened era in American politics, this interpretation fails to acknowledge the realistic implications of this month's elections.
The new Democratic House and Senate serve not as ringing endorsements of the party's ideology, nor do they reflect a referendum on the "incompetence" of the Bush administration and Republicans. Rather, the votes of Americans are indicative of a demand for substantive and balanced thought.
For far too long, voters have faced an unappetizing choice: Support a party with increasingly ineffective ideas (Republicans) or endorse a party with no ideas at all (Democrats). Thankfully, Americans have summoned the strength to reject this point of stagnation between the lesser of two evils. In electing a Democratic Congress, we have expressed our hope that a return to balance will check and satiate partisan appetites for power, refocusing the government's attention on how best to collectively serve our nation.
However, while the aforementioned problem is often attributed to the inherent nature of politics, we, as Americans, are complicit in the state of the country. We have turned our backs on values of substance, quality and practicality in the political arena. In turn, we have let our emotions and often morally relativistic beliefs dictate our interpretations of and standards for those in public office.
Whereas conservative voters often place issues such as gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research atop their hierarchy of concerns, liberals base their decisions on categorical criticisms of Republican policy and an unwavering support of traditionally Democratic ideas. Yet, in adopting these stances, voters have provided politicians with incentives and cues to abandon the strategy of appealing to Americans via actual ideas.
Republican leaders have interpreted voters' senseless preoccupation with nonessential issues as a mandate to emphasize the importance of ultimately inconsequential beliefs and relegate the analysis of critical foreign and domestic affairs to an elite in-group of policy makers. And Democrats, feeding off the often uninformed outrage of liberals, have embraced the very fear-mongering that they condemn on the part of Republicans, spewing apocalyptic rhetoric about the direction of the country while failing to provide a viable course of action.
Based on the low expectations of American voters, the Republican Party has locked itself into a spiral of self-defeating and bullheaded policy, while Democrats have sought to bolster their image by avoiding the adoption of any cogent position other than that of "the Republicans are wrong."
It is the resulting polarization of politics in this country that has facilitated the weakening of our nation as whole. Sadly, we the voters are most responsible for this, contributing to a mentality of division in which Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, are chiefly concerned with defeating each other rather than maximizing American prosperity, power, reputation and security for all.
Therefore, the return in balance is not auspicious in terms of a shift in the balance of political power in our nation. Instead, it is promising in that its roots can be found in the war in Iraq. In casting their votes, Americans have expressed their renewed realization in the primacy of thoughtful and planned foreign policy with respect to the well-being of our nation.
Yet, just as these votes cannot be defined as a condemnation or endorsement of a specific foreign policy plan, it is difficult to interpret the restructuring of the Congress as a victory for Democrats and a loss for Republicans. Rather, this shift indicates a revived focus on and commitment to meaning and substance, not only regarding what politicians present to us, but, more importantly, in terms of what we demand from our politicians.
