Good riddance to bad rubbish

Two and a half weeks out of the election, conventional wisdom says that things aren’t looking good for the Republicans. Actually, conventional wisdom says that Democrats should be picking up in the neighborhood of 40 seats, given that it’s the midterm election of a president’s second term. But there are no credible sources predicting that.

That said, I’ve never been much for conventional wisdom. So I don’t think it’s as bad for Republicans and people would have you believe. Don’t get me wrong – times certainly aren’t good for the Republicans. But I’m not buying into the whole doomsday theory. Of course, I could very well be wrong and the Democrats could pick up both the house and the senate. I guess we’ll see.

There are a couple of races in which Republicans are at a disadvantage that I just can’t be too upset about. One is more of an active dislike, the other is more of a passive discomfort.

The first race is that of Linco|n Ch@fee, Senator from Rhode Is|and. I’ve never much liked him as a senator. His credentials as a Republican have long been in question, and beyond that, he’s simply inconsistent (or, perhaps more accurately, unreliability). And if there’s one thing that absolutely irritates me it’s inconsistency. So, my reasoning is, if he doesn’t normally vote like a Republican and his support for the party is unreliable, I see no point in keeping him in the senate. So if he ends up losing, which is looking more and more likely, I hope the door doesn’t hit him in – well, I just hope to the door doesn’t hit him.

The other race is that of Pennsy|vania senator Rick S@ntorum. Now, I probably agree with Rick S@ntorum on most things. But there is just something about him that makes me uncomfortable. I can’t explain it any other way than he has a certain “creepy factor.” There are certain ways of presenting the Republican opinion so as to not be creepy and off-putting, and it just seems to me that he doesn’t do this effectively. I don’t actively want him to lose, but if can’t advance the cause without being divisive, his liability outweighs his contributions.

Having said that, I don’t consider myself to be a member of the disaffected conservatives who wish to see the Republicans lose power simply to “teach them a lesson.” Granted, the current Republican administration has done plenty of things that disagree with. But I agree with the Democrats even less and on more important issues.

It’s somewhat to nature of the American political beast that the choice is always between the better of two crappy options – a giant douche and a turd sandwich, if you will. But until the system changes, which is highly unlikely, we have to work with what we’ve got. The Republicans are wrong on plenty, but at least the majority of them understand the conflict we’re in. Democrats have offered no viable alternative (the operative word being “viable”) to the current situation, and thus have nothing for me.

I will say, however, that if the Democrats blow this election, they might as well pack it in. If they can’t beat the Republicans when they insist on beating themselves, they’re obviously not resonating with the American people and need to seriously reconsider their platform.

Also, in the event that the Democrats do win the House and or Senate, they won’t have much to celebrate. Their majorities will like be so narrow that they will not be able to enforce what little legislative agenda they have. And in the Senate, the Republicans will likely just filibuster anything the Democrats propose. Payback’s a bitch. Also, they will be nowhere near the 3/4 majority to override a presidential veto. Sure, they might be able to call for investigations on the administration, but we saw how well that worked last time.

There will, however, be much more political maneuvering for 2008. So I guess we have THAT to look forward to.