Electoral thoughts, part II

Carlos inquired, by e'mail, whether I'm pleased with the election results. I have to say I am, although I'm not so naive as to believe that the legislative ascendancy of the one political party over another will usher in a Millennium of Bliss. There will still be stupid laws and stupid politicians, no matter which party prevails. But at least now the Bush administration will be countered by a legislature that will, one hopes, counter its worst excesses and question its dubious assertions.

It's interesting to note that, in Michigan at least, the popular vote was not a straight-line ringing endorsement of stereotypically "liberal" or Democratic positions. Voters endorsed Democratic candidates for the governorship and both state and federal legislatures, but also strongly favored a couple of ballot referendums associated with the kind of limited government that at one time was considered politically conservative. By a large margin, Michiganders & Michigeese voted to ban governmental affirmative action based on race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, etc. (Proposition 2). And by an overwhelming 80-20 margin, they voted to restrict governmental use of eminent domain. (Prop. 4)

It sounds to me like Lou Dobbs is right when he argues that the vote in this election was simply a vote of "no confidence" in the arrogant and increasingly tone-deaf Republican political establishment. I am gratified to note that reports of vote-counting shenanigans seem to be scattered and, if any such efforts took place, they were ineffective against the overwhelming electoral tide of disaffection with one-party Republican rule.

It's now up to the Democrats to organize themselves into something resembling an effective legislative majority. We'll see how that goes, and where they decide to go. If the Democrats fail to note the fundamental distrust of overreaching big government that seems to have driven both the voters' revolt against the Republicans and their rejection of affirmative action and inappropriate use of eminent domain, then their reign in Congress may prove shortlived once voters' disgust with the war in Iraq is no longer focused exclusively on the Republicans.