Presidential election-night politics are like watching a herd of wild mustangs, you can tell which direction the herd is headed by looking at the dust cloud they leave behind.
I figured that Tuesday’s election was already over as I settled in with my cup of chamomile tea around 11 p.m.; and I wasn’t reading tea leaves. The political dust trail in the form of the down-ballot races told exactly where the nation, as a herd, was headed.
Nevertheless, I stayed up to hear what the president-elect had to say, even though I knew the score long before the national news made the call by watching which direction the herd of states galloped in the down-ballot contests.
Of course, there are certain states that are easy to call even before a single vote is cast; but, I have found that the so-called “battleground” states tend to follow similar trends and once one falls in a particular direction, others tend to follow the same route, or come tantalizingly close for one side.
Now, widely respected and well-funded incumbents, such as Rick Allen (R- Ga.), generally sail into an unobstructed port, so I look for hotly contested races on the down-ballot for clues.
Sen. Ted Cruz race, (R-Tex.) was a good one to watch.
The one thing that did surprise me was the Congressional upset with Trump Republicans taking the Senate, which puts two of the three branches of government under the control of one political party.
In my opinion, this is never a good thing at any level of government.
Now, don’t think I am getting all conspiratorial on you. No, I am not alluding to jack boots goose stepping over the Constitution. There are plenty of safeguards in place to prevent that from happening.
Policy is what interests me about politics, not personalities. That is why I really would prefer my readers not know what my fingers are doing in the voting booth. To me, it’s silly and a little narcissistic for a writer, or really anyone who gets one vote like everyone else, to think their vote is going to have any influence over an election. This is why I fervently wish that “celebrities” would follow the example set by the King, Elvis Presley, and keep their party affiliations to themselves.
My interest lies in studying the history of how the ever-changing and evolving political map influences policy decisions down the line and I have discovered gridlock, from the local “Marble Palace,” to the “Hallowed Halls” of Congress is a good thing to have in government. While people tend to act their worst during election season, when they have gridlock, then they have to roll up their sleeves and consider an opposing opinion to move forward and that is when conversation and compromise takes place.
In modern history, we have learned from both the Obama and Trump administrations that “pen and phone” fiat rule never ends well. However, having a sycophant Congress can be even worse, especially if the Supreme Court leans to the majority side as the nation experienced with the Roberts’ Court’s rulings on the Affordable Care Act.
The other peril is that the adrenal glands continue to pump among the majority party’s ground troops and that along with already elevated levels of both testosterone and estrogen in the party faithful’s veins, the hormones are at full force even when it is not election season.
When these people find themselves in full control of the brass ring, they tend to act like feral kittens dumped on a deserted island, they turn to cannibalism.
We have seen this in Columbia County politics for decades. The Republican-controlled county certainly does get the job of governance done quite well, in my opinion, but the party, long ago, separated into two distinct herds that fight and bicker over the pettiest of things.
I get as much amusement out of watching the little fits the Columbia County Republicans pitch as I do watching Kamala Harris verbally toss a word salad while dodging a flaming linguistical obstacle course from behind the wheel of a cute little yellow school bus, one that everyone loves, to attempt to a make a salient point (is it too early?).
As far as I am concerned, the gridlock that occurred in the 1990s was a good period for America. Bill Clinton had a sycophant Congress for all of two years, and the country wisely gave him some vocal voting opposition on the Hill. I need to check my research, but I believe that was the last era that the federal government had an actual published and balanced budget. I know it was the last time that the federal government claimed to have a budget surplus worth mentioning.
Remember HillaryCare? Yep, that one was dead on arrival.
It is my deepest hope that the victors on Tuesday take their responsibilities seriously, understand that America has some serious economic issues to contend with along with having to deal with an international community that hasn’t been this dysfunctional since 1914, and those folks back then didn’t have nuclear weapons pointed at one another.
For those that backed the Democrats, look at the bright side, at least SNL will go back to being funny again!
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
