Elections
I am finding this election cycle to be fairly annoying, for a couple of reasons.
Most parties website spend valuable time and energy talking in these vague, abstract unclear terms that mean nothing to me as a moderately liberal voter. What I want is a clear message that I can hash out and vote on. I mean seriously, the Republican’s approval rating in both congress and the white house is in the 30-40% range. People don’t like Bush, they don’t like congress, and they sure as hell don’t like the direction the country is going. This election is the democrats to lose. Any other system, or most other countries they would have a signficant chance at taking back at least a majority in the Senate and a signficant majority in the House. But from what I have been reading there isn’t much of a chance of it going beyond a razor thin majority. In my opinion its because there is no clear message, and no clear idea that I should be voting for except the “not Bush” ticket.
The other thing that bothers me is if a party loses an election, (if the Democrats fail to take a majority) there is clear lack of accountablity of party leadership. The party leaders won’t resign, there won’t be a cry for fresh blood at the top, and there won’t be a growth and the recognition that the party needs new leadership. (at least thats what history looks like from the outside). In my opinion if the democrats fail to take a majority, they need to do some serious housecleaning. Their leaders should expect to resign, and they need to sort through what it will take to win the election. More of the same just won’t do it.