All over the print and electronic media this week, the poobahs and pundits are predicting major Republican gains in next year’s elections. What is their basis for so bold a prediction? Historically, the party of a sitting president always loses in the midterm elections. It is as natural as autumn following summer. However, they fail to take into consideration one crucial factor: this is no ordinary time.

Given their weird behavior in the last year or so – and given the fact that they will only continue to self destruct in coming twelve months – I cannot foresee them gaining any serious ground in either the House or the Senate on Election Day next. In fact I can only see their numbers diminishing even further. By this time next year, Sarah Palin will be yesterday’s news – count on it.

We can only hope that out of the carnage of the GOP’s destruction will come a third party that is a tad more moderate and thoughtful – and I must emphasize the word “Hope”. Than ain’t never gonna happen, baby! It’s easy to predict that the Democrats will be running things for a long time into the future. The problem with that little scenario is, as Machiavelli said, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – and the Democrats already have more-than-their-share of corrupt political hacks. For every Russ Feingold there are about ten Max Baucuses. If the Democratic Party is going to be taken seriously in their self-proclaimed roll as the “the party of the people” (and that’s getting harder to believe by the day) they need to be purged of their dead weight.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY