Friday, November 9, 2012

Hooray! I Was Wrong


I'm glad to acknowledge that my worry was exaggerated about the possibility of Superstorm Sandy—as serious as it was—disrupting  the 2012 elections. But beyond that, I'm also extremely relieved by the results of the race itself. To be sure, I'm disappointed by the failings of President Obama's first administration, but considering the alternative of  having Romney in the White House, there's no question that it's well worth taking another chance with Obama. I think that there's a possibility that his determination to get the job done may improve this time around, especially inasmuch as he's not up for further re-election and can thus concentrate on meeting his stated goals without the distraction and the need to compromise his agenda that would come with running for another term.  

My concern now however is that the Republicans, who couldn't defeat Obama with obstructionism and were frustrated in their aim to make him a one-term president, will now resort  to impeachment on some flimsy pretext or other, which is the wrecking ball strategy that they used against President Clinton who at the time was also a second-term Democrat. And even though the attempt failed, it was an ugly hate fest put up by the extreme Right  that served no useful purpose for the country and wound up costing the public millions of dollars.

As spiteful as many of the Republicans were in the 1990's, just about the entire party has gone completely over to the dark side since then. It's true that based on the election results, the Democrats now control the Senate. However, the Republicans control the House of Representatives; This is the chamber that initiates the articles of impeachment.  So it's no great leap of the imagination to conceive how GOP  members from this branch of Congress could attempt to remove another despised Democrat from office.

In short, Obama owes the Republicans nothing, least of the same attempt at bipartisanship  with which he went overboard in his first term. They will likely once again try to sabotage his efforts no matter what he does. I'd like to think that he realizes this and will proceed  to push his programs forward this time, rabid opponents and detractors be damned.

2 comments:

Grundy said...

I wonder if the storm influenced the election at all. Obama had some extra screen time due to it, Chris Christie even somewhat endorsed the president. It brought into light Romney's desire to defund FEMA (although even Obama talked about this, I think)

It's impossible to tell.

Secular Guy said...

Grundy, thanks for your thoughts. If the storm prompted any voters to decide in Obama's favor, it likely would have been those who were undecided. Their choice also might have been affected by Romney's flip-flopping declarations about FEMA.