Posted by
Peter V. Bella on Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:56:03 AM
The American people are fed up. Democrat and Republican voters alike are disgusted with government. The Republicans let us down and then due to their greed, corruption, and lack of fiscal restraint, they lost the legislature. The Democrats, in one year of power, angered their voters by being power hungry, greedy, and being unable to accomplish any of their stated goals, including ending the war.
One of the reasons the Democrats won big in 2006 was the disgust of Republican voters. They stayed home on election day. What are the Democrats going to do in 2008? They cannot go any further left than they have or they will alienate the majority of voters. If they move right to the middle or moderate area, they will alienate their fundamentalist radical base.
Neither party has anything to offer. The Republicans broke their Contract with America; the basis for their majority in the Mid-Nineties. The Democrats have proven to their voters that they are all talk and no action. Their blaming the President for their failures is getting old and no one, except for the fringe, is buying it.
As to the presidential candidates the field is loaded with mediocrity on both sides. There is not one candidate that can galvanize the electorate like Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton did. Both men had a certain charisma, charm, and way of speaking plainly. They evoked trust. Of course Bill Clinton broke that trust.
There are serious problems facing our nation in the near future on the domestic and international front. The Democrats have no one who can even come close to understanding, let alone provide solutions to these issues. The Republicans have a few good candidates but there is too much infighting within the party.
Depending on what happens in the next few months 2008 could be the year of political failure for the United States. Washington is in gridlock, the agencies and departments are being run by agenda driven career bureaucrats, the legislature is stalled, and both parties are trying to hard to appeal to there fringe bases instead of the moderates- the majority of the voters.
This election will probably be the most important election in most of our life times- the legislative and presidential. I hope that the candidates start taking the American people seriously instead of taking the parties seriously.