What it Means

The outcome of the mid-term election, in which the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, and the Democrats retained control of the Senate, means that Congress will not be able to conduct meaningful business for the next two years. Thank God!

Whenever there is gridlock in Congress, the American people are well-served. Last night I switched television channels frequently to see how the news media treated this emerging change in government. For the most part, the pundits agreed with my conclusion that little would be accomplished in Congress for the next two years, but most did not think that was a good thing. Comments like, "the American people want the government to take care of the business of the people," made me wince. That is why we are IN such a sorry mess: Congress has been conducting business, spending more money, expanding its power over the American people, and generally fucking up everything they address.

As for the message the people sent in the vote last night, it was not that they like Republicans; rather, it was that they want jobs and they don't want government-run health care. Republicans are reading into the result that people want limited federal intrusion into their lives, so that's now the party mantra--not that they believe it or will practice it, given their track record. But in the event, they're wrong; Americans will accept big government if they have jobs and can live fairly well economically. Does anyone think that the Republicans would have won last night if the state of the economy had been good?

So, given that Americans are not as discriminating about the size and power of the federal government as Republicans think, and are not as accepting of socialist health care and higher taxes as the Democrats think, the best we Libertarians can hope for is that Americans keep voting for split government so that neither party gets total control and gets what they want. That's a sorry state of affairs, but we'll take it for now.