Early Voting which began Monday of last week (18 October 2010)
ends this Friday 29 October 2010
There’s a lot of people who are talking about “let’s take back our country!” Really--- from whom exactly?
If the republic is not in the control of “we the people” it is probably because “we the people” have not been paying attention or maybe we’re discovering that sometimes the person or candidate who panders to our little pet issue (abortion, gay rights, gun rights and etc) doesn’t do much of anything else for the republic.
More importantly, when a majority (just over 50 percent) of 310 million people force their pettiness on the other almost 50 percent things get contentious. It is in fact what the founders termed, tyranny by majority---meaning it is no different than having a “monarch” or “cleric” in control forcing pettiness. To the founders this was clearly unacceptable.
From 1968 to present, 2010. The republic has mostly been in the hands of the GOPers. This was especially true when we were pretty much a totalitarian state from 2000 to 2006. In a totalitarian state there is no freedom of thought. Minorities, that is anyone not in the majority are rendered voice-less. From 2000-2006 all three branches of our “government” were in the hands of the GOPers. It was “Dark Ages” ugly.
Consider this when Bill Clinton won election in 1992 there he was the first Democrat to win the office since 1976.
Put another way, between 1968 and 1992 Jimmy Carter was the only Democrat to be elected to the presidency.
When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 he was only the third member of the Democratic party elected to the presidency since 1968.
Jimmy Carter held the office for 4 years. Bill Clinton held it for 8 years. Barack Obama has been there two.
Since 1968 Republicans have held the presidency as follows. Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon (5) Gerald Ford (3), Ronald Reagan (8), George Bush 1(4), “w” (8). Let me do the math for you.
From 1968 to 2010 GOPers have held the presidency 28 years and Dems 14.
A Visual Guide: The Balance Of Power Between Congress and The Presidency
Which party controls Congress? Which, the White House? The answer reveals the "balance of power" in the two branches of government that have elected officials (Congress and the White House).
Americans seem to prefer that the checks-and-balances envisioned by the founders be facilitated by having different parties control Congress and the White House.
Contrary to popular belief, most of the time (in modern political history) Congress and the President are at odds; that is, most of the time the same political party does not control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Only 10 times (20 years) since 1945 have both branches of Congress and the Presidency been controlled by the same party.
However, most of the time, Congress has been controlled by the same party. The "odd man out" has literally been the President. Since 1945, the House and Senate have been controlled by different parties only five times (10 years). And there have been only two complete turn-overs of Congress since 1945: one in 1949 and the other in 2007.
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
So tell me again---from whom exactly are we wresting our republic?
Many years ago there was a comic strip titled Pogo. One of my favorite Pogo lines is, “We have met the enemy and it is us!”
The only change to that wisdom that I can see today is that the oligarchs who have been in control since at least 1826 are tightening their death grip on the republic and what little “democracy” there is even more than they did when they (the oligarchs) did during what was arguably the most conservative decade in the history of this republic, the 1950’s.
We really don’t need to get back to that.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County Candidates at a glance
http://mysapolitics.com/election.php/2010/01/06/current-election-candidates-list-2010
Bexar County Elections Department
http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/elections/Links/links.html
Bexar County Democratic Party
http://www.bexardemocrats.org/
Bexar County Republican Party
http://www.bexargop.org/calendar.php
League of Women Voters of Texas
http://www.lwvtexas.org/
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