Election Lessons

Observing the 2006 national elections, the tv talking heads (tvth?) correctly, in my opinion, diagnosed national anger at all politicians. They were also correct when they attributed the anger to frustration with the Iraq debacle. There are other factors. In this post and the next few will be delineated a few of them. Perhaps the first and most important is that we common folk know that wealth is becoming more and more concentrated into the hands of the already rich. That money has to come from somewhere and it does--us. We have at least a vague awareness that the rich Republicans have passed legislation to protect banks from -- us! We have a suspicion that the Republicans and their well-dressed lobbyists have legislated to help the drug industry get more of our money. We are having trouble keeping track of the comings and goings in the boardrooms of Big Oil, the administration, and their OPEC (Saudi) friends. Some of us suspect that the war on Iraq might have been an attempt to solve an OPEC problem. Taking the elected leader of Venezuela out, to paraphrase Pat Robertson, would support this notion. Sending our jobs overseas, busting unions, and importing illegal labor to keep American wages low are not going unnoticed. The traditional balance between Reps and Dems is gone. When the Reps control Congress and the Executive, they will act to take care their rich peers. When the Dems control, they will -- do the same, only less blatantly. Boys (referring to pols, both Rep and Dem), we know you both for who you are, we may not be watching you very closely, but we know we need to be. Tomorrow, you Boys will be the topic.