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Column By Mike Bibb
What happened to the highly-hyped Red Wave? I thought nearly all the talking heads – at least, the ones who are supposed to be super smart on election stuff — assured us President Joe Biden’s miserable performance in office was going to guarantee a near Republican sweep.
In fact, the U.S. House and Senate were almost guaranteed to flip from Blue to Red. Even Vegas was taking bets on the action.
Whoops. After a week of counting votes, Cherry Red has faded to Terra Cotta.
Nevertheless, a reddish tint. There’s still some hope the brakes can be applied to many of Biden’s head-scratching fiascos, although not with as much enthusiasm.
Actually, the Dems are whooping-it-up almost as much as the Repubs, celebrating they didn’t get beat as badly as expected.
When a Democratic candidate from Pennsylvania, whose recent stroke left him partially incoherent, beats a popular Republican medical doctor and TV personality, then you instinctively sense things are not going well for Lincoln’s party.
To rub salt in the wound, the muddled new U.S. Senator – who hasn’t yet served a day in Congress – is already being promoted as a possible future presidential candidate.
Sounds about par for the course. The inmates have taken over.
Almost.
While Republicans failed to secure the Senate, they did add a few additional seats in the House. Not overwhelming, but in better shape than they were.
Among the benefits, Nancy Pelosi will no longer be in charge. She’ll become just another voting member with a couple of committees to attend. That is, if she wants to show up as an ordinary Congress person, sans her big wooden gavel.
However, the greatest benefit of regaining the House is that legislation requiring funding – constitutionally – is mandated by the House of Representatives, per Art.1, Sec. 7.
This means Biden’s proposal to hire over 80,000 new IRS agents has to first be approved and paid for by a majority of House members.
Since the IRS is probably the least popular, most despised agency of government, it would appear the chances of additional hordes of federal tax collectors fanning out across the countryside will be considerably reduced.
Besides, what’s the point? With a government already over $31 trillion in debt, and routinely printing and spending as much money as it wants – then complaining about inflation – is a colossal tax bureau really relevant, other than to squeeze citizens for a few more bucks?
Long gone are the days when the dollar was based upon a sound monetary system. Now, it’s whatever the Federal Reserve Banking System determines our money is worth, how much is in circulation, and the interest rates we must pay on any given day.
When society is severely hampered by a mismanaged pandemic, money and government benefits are handed out like candy, and folks are no longer encouraged to work, it becomes an alluring enticement for the public to support the apparatus this convoluted arrangement is based upon.
Consequently, no surprise Republicans failed to overcome the Democrats.
Equally puzzling, why did Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel pull funding from Arizona’s Blake Masters to support Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania? In the end, both races were lost, handing Democrats two additional victories.
Was this blunder a mistake, or by design? Seems kind of fishy.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, recently commented upon the disappointing performance Republicans experienced in the midterm elections, by lamenting “The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new.”
Continuing, he remarked “Washington Republicanism lost big Tuesday night. When your agenda is to cave to Big Pharma on insulin, cave to Schumer on gun control and Green New Deal (‘infrastructure’), and tease changes to Social Security and Medicare, you lose.
“What are Republicans actually going to do for the working people? How about, to start: tougher tariffs on China, reshore American jobs, open up American energy full throttle, 100K new cops on the street. Unrig the system.”
His final recommendation – “Unrig the system” – pretty much sums it up.
Realistically, Republicans will probably have a better chance of strengthening their grip in 2024 when they have a presidential candidate to help them along.
Especially, if Dems still have Biden to contend with. By then, there’s no telling what his cognitive condition will be, or if he even knows he’s running for reelection.
According to the Gila Herald, Nov. 14, after a week of vote tabulating it looks like Democrat Katie Hobbs narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake for Arizona governor. Katie copied Joe’s successful campaign strategy by staying home, staying quiet, and waiting out the vote count.
The fortunate fact her position as Arizona’s current Secretary of State, in charge of elections, probably had no influence on her victory.
Of course, to question such inconvenient truths a person runs the risk of being tagged “An election denier”; something similar to a “Democracy Destroyer.” Only, worse!!!
“Electrically, they keep an election score” – The Beat Goes On, Sonny & Cher, 1967. Truthfully, I substituted “election” for the original “baseball” phrase. Fifty-five years later, Sonny won’t care, but Cher might.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
