The 2010 midterm elections have come and gone. The political backlash moves to the other side now. We are not safe from the tea party people, the scary Republican mama grizzlies, the even stranger Christine O'Donnell and we will never be safe from the psychotic Ann Coulter.
It's frustrating that 18-29 year old population vote the least, especially when this countries voters are so fickle. The word backlash doesn't even mean anything anymore. The actual election process is frighteningly predictable when it comes to who controls the house and the senate. It didn't take the entire first two years of Obamas term for his approval ratings to plummet. Thinking back, it must have obvious that the elation felt after his historical victory was going to disappear after awhile. The way that Obama rose to popularity hasn't changed his ability to fall from Americas graces.
The two party system does not allow for quick progress in any manner. Whenever we change from Democrat to Republican and then back to Republican to Democrats, is it not safe to say that the majority of time is spent trying to undo what the previous party accomplished? Fed up voters elect the man who will be blamed for doing nothing in six months because the last guy they put in office didn't accomplish anything.
Even the fact that America has still not had a women president is not as upsetting as it once was. Isn't the only way to get elected to become appealing to the largest amount of individuals possible thus eradicating any chance of making changes (radical or not) completely impossible? Hillary had to change her tune before she was seriously (arguably) considered as a nominee to run for President. You could never get elected into public office on a radical platform. Anything not fitting the status quo is dangerous. Okay, we passed a health care bill, super. Who did we inevitably have to sell out at the last minute in order to appease the conservatives? You got it, those damn abortion having liberals. Women are always last.
Hopefully this backlash will wake up those pacified liberals into taking back their victory. If you are doomed to failure to start with, maybe you should just go out swinging instead of inevitably conforming and selling out. Compromise is one thing but there really isn't very much that's open to discussion. There are those who believe in democracy and it sure beats the alternatives but sometimes I wonder if the short term memory doesn't have the capacity to think back more than two years at a time should we really be the ones choosing the individuals who we want to do nothing?
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