The future

Here's what I would LIKE to see now that the Democrats control the House and Senate:

A clear alternative to the current tactics in Iraq. A plan for getting the Iraqis to take charge of their country and to stop killing each other. Bush and the Republicans think their tactics are working and clearly they are not. Given enough time and Soldiers, it might work or it might not. Frankly I don't know if there is a way to make the Iraqis stop killing each other. It's easy to say Bush went in without a plan and screwed the whole thing up. It's a fair criticism too. Actually I would say they went in with an incomplete plan rather than no plan.

I think it would also be fair to say that if the politicians had been working for victory, rather than waiting to pounce on any perceived failures, the American people would have been behind the effort and the situation would be much different. It's like the chicken and the egg... Is the chaos in Iraq causing Americans to want to quit; or are the terrorists, who pay close attention, seeing the dissatisfaction with the war and stepping up the attacks?

Are we losing or are we quitting? Are we the people who fought through to victory in World War 2, or are we the people who ran away from Somalia when the going got tough. The democrats may "get us out" of Iraq, but unless we leave a stable situation, we will be back.

Here's what else I'd like to see:

Go ahead and raise the minimum wage. But make sure it's not going to cause that restaurant down the street to fire my teenage son because they can't afford to pay him. Or keep them from hiring him in the first place.

Protect our roadless areas. The environment is what makes me want to be a liberal, really. Try going for a hike around Denver, true wilderness is hard to find around here. You need to pay for a permit to camp and no fires are allowed. What's going on in the Front Range could happen one day in the rest of the west if we don't plan for growth now. But it has to be done with an eye towards business and development. People without jobs aren't likely to have time to go out and enjoy the wilderness; they will be more worried about feeding their kids.

Force the auto companies to produce higher mileage cars. This is a no brainer, the technology exists, just do it. Don't get the U.S. involved in some goofy global warming treaty that punishes us alone. Again, we need to do something, but we also need to feed our families.

These are a few of the things I'd like to see happen. If they do this kind of thing, then I will start to see them as a force for positive change and might even consider voting for their candidate for president in 2008.

Here is what I'm afraid WILL happen:

I'm afraid the Democrats will use the next two years to set up their bid for the presidency in 2008. We will see investigations, hearings and maybe impeachment talk about Bush. They will push bills through that they know Republicans will vote against and Bush will veto; just so they have ammuntition to hammer Republicans with next election. I believe Republicans do the exact same thing when they are in power.

And this is the problem. These politicians don't care about doing anything to help us or the country. They are interested in getting elected and staying in power.

So we can look forward to two years of pounding the Republicans and negative, negative, negative all the time. I hate the way the media has worked to make us feel bad about being Americans these last few years. But I think we need to resign ourselves to it for a while longer.