| "I'll show you President Obama's birth certificate when you show me Sarah Palin's high school diploma." - Bill Maher
Don't look now. But, next year the state and national electoral bandwagon rolls though town again. Another election.
Man. I'm just getting over the last one. The feeling is one of fatigue or a hangover, but not the kind with a throbbing headache. More of a dull pain.
After all of these years, I am trying to figure out which is which is worse:
1.Working so hard and losing and feeling powerless while the whackos screw things up; or
2.Working so hard and winning and then watching so little be accomplished when those with white hats rule.
Remember election night in 2008? Soldier Field filled with tens of thousands of new faces. Euphoria. The articulate black guy with large ears, his wife dressed in a stunning red dress and two beautiful children. It was a stunning, electric political moment.
The margin was clear. No need for the Supreme Court to weigh in. So much promise. "Change you can believe in." "We're the ones we've been waiting for." Such promise.
While the nation celebrated, election results in Big Sky Country were close but, no cigar. Our electoral votes narrowly stayed red. And, in the midst of the so-called big wins that night, there were ominous signs.
Baucus surged to a win with a campaign war chest exceeding $10.0 million, but no one critically scrutinized its sources and the consequences.
Conflicted and sad sack D candidate, John Driscoll, actually voted for his opponent; and, Rehberg rolled to victory. The message here exactly?
The bright side? Schweitzer led a ticket of statewide candidates that, with the exception of Linda McCulloch, all won easily. And, for the fist time since 1948, the D's control all five offices.
1948?!?
In the Legislature, a net 5 seats traded hands. The D's increased their count in the House of Representatives from 49 to 50 (and earned a tie with the R's) and lost 4 seats in the Senate (27 to 23).
And, after a year, what has happened?
Nationally, real, meaningful health care reform appears dead, perhaps for another generation. Energy policy and climate change proposals languish. Too often, foreign policy still is measured in troop counts and trillions of dollars in defense spending.
With the health care industry and pharmaceuticals and heavy-industry lobby calling the shots, not much has changed.
Statewide, for progressives, everything is, well, ho-hum. Yes, the Governor can boast about being one of two governors operating a budget in the black. But, hundreds of millions of state tax dollars freed up by then infusion of stimulus monies that could have been directed to health care and education, instead went to "shovel ready" projects (most of which, because of the comparatively small amount of money involved, are cosmetic in nature). High unemployment and chronic underemployment persist. Once again, the legislature gutted environmental laws (and Schweitzer signed most of them), neglected the University System and (Brian says he's the System's biggest ally in several generations) and sent the Governor a piss-poor bill to guide the ways property is valued and taxed (and he allowed it to become law without his signature).
It is often said that the R's hate government and, for that reason, are not very good at governing. But, with working majorities nationally and statewide, when they were in power they delivered their agenda items. By way of comparison, the D's are timid and spineless and when they are in charge produce results much like those of their dreaded opposition.
It could be worse, I suppose. But, we worked hard for what?
And, now, they're back and they want more?
2010 is just around the corner.
Stay tuned. |
