Bad decisions to no decisions

As you read this column you know who has won and who has lost in the midterm elections. You know who will control the House and the Senate for the next two years, who will be Vermont’s governor, and whether, for the first time since the Civil War, the House and the Senate will be controlled by two different parties. You have a great advantage over me, for as I write this on Sunday afternoon, I know with certainty the answers to none of these questions.  However, since the election is the only political subject that can hold my attention at the moment, I have elected to write on it anyway. Please excuse me if the election results in time cause some of my statements to be slightly ridiculous.

Midterm elections may not be as exciting, as highly publicized or as politically charged as presidential elections but they will have a significant influence on the government for the next two years. In effect they decide what kinds of bills will be passed and how easily.  The results of one or two races can change all legislative action. This week, the United States Congress has been transformed from one under which the healthcare bill was passed to one under which this would be an impossibility. The government has gone from making bad decisions to making none.

What I have read and heard from newspapers, polls, television commentary and Professor of Political Science Matt Dickinson indicates that Republicans will take back the House but remain two seats short from controlling the Senate (Republicans will not win in the California and West Virginia Senate races). This will mean that for the first time in American history, we will have a Democratic administration with a Democrat controlled Senate and a Republican controlled House. Such a government cannot act on any politically charged subject. Political division in this country has become so radical that the divided legislature will act as a straitjacket. The Democrats will be immediately checked by the Republican House and be unable to push through any divisive legislation while the Republicans will have too little support to repeal any of the legislation passed during Obama’s first two years or to pass any of their own. Instead, both sides will spend the next two years posturing for the 2012 election, promising the American people that any problems or inactivity stem from the power of the other party.

No party wishes to have only enough power to prevent the other party from acting.  Today, if I am correct in my earlier prediction, Republicans and Democrats alike will bemoan the government’s power divisions. But for those of us who are Republicans, it is still a time to celebrate. Action is not always better than inaction and the prevention of bad legislation is still a good. Several different people have raised the question of whether Republicans should want to take back the House without the Senate. Unable to really act, they would still open themselves up to culpability for any of the problems of the next two years. In 2012 they will be unable to pass all the blame onto the Democrats and appeal to the American people for a chance to start over entirely. They will no longer be able to use the trump card of complete non-involvement.

In terms of campaign strategy this might be a legitimate question, but (if one holds conservative opinions) it is not one in terms of the good of the country.  The last two years have not been extraordinarily active ones. In fact, many Obama supporters have been disappointed by how little his administration has done. Yet they have still managed to pass an extremely controversial health care bill, multiple stimulus packages and appoint two judges to the Supreme Court. They failed to pass a budget this year. If one believes that these actions have hurt the United States, one cannot believe that in the interest of campaign strategy Republicans should stay away and allow more legislation to pass. They must do as much for America as its people give them leave to do. In the end parties are created to rule, not to run for office. In every election the American people will choose who they want to lead and those people have a duty to do so.

The Congress has the duty to pass a budget. They may fail in the next two years. This will highlight the crisis of the republic. Conservatives believe that the government needs restraint so that in the future we will have republican government. More progressivism will rip the fabric of our government. Yet we recognize that imposing that restraint will increase for the moment stress on that government. For the future we need to have hope — hope in the prudence of the American people.