Let’s just imagine a scenario where the Republican Party gains 40 or more seats in the House of Representatives and 10 in the Senate, and therefore wins control of both houses of Congress! 🙁
What would this mean? Many things, indeed, none of them good for America! 🙁 There is no special order to the following list!
1. John Boehner would become Speaker of the House, and Eric Cantor would become House Majority Leader–neither of whom have yet come up with any concept of leadership other than total opposition to anything but helping corporations avoid regulation!
2. Mitch McConnell would become Senate Majority Leader, and presides over a chaotic Senate in which Tea Party Movement senators such as Mike Lee, Ken Buck, Marco Rubio, and Linda McMahon join Rand Paul and Sharron Angle, and make one feel that Tom Coburn, James Inhofe and Jim DeMint are comparatively “mainstream”!
3. The House would begin probes of the Obama Administration, with Darrell Issa of California having the power to issue subpoenas and promote a “witch hunt” against the President and his staff!
4. Any attempt to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military, if not accomplished already, will fail to be enacted by Congress!
5. Attempts to repeal the Health Care legislation will be an early order of business!
6. Attempts to repeal Financial Reform legislation will be urgently pursued!
7. Tax cuts for the wealthy will proliferate, and the estate tax will permanently come to an end!
8. Defense spending will rise astronomically, and there will be talk of war against the Islamic world!
9. There will be attempts to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and get the government out of the business of controlling the “safety net”!
10. There will be no environmental legislation, as Senator James Inhofe will continue to block any action against global warming and climate change!
11. The new Consumer Financial Protection Agency will be scaled back, and possibly face repeal, as unnecessary bureaucracy!
12. Any judicial appointments, including the Supreme Court, will be blocked or delayed!
13. No more economic stimulus of any kind will be offered, despite the fact of growing unemployment and higher levels of mortgage foreclosures!
14. Attempts will be made to bring charges of impeachment against President Obama, based on McCarthy type innuendos!
15. Education and all other social programs will be dramatically cut!
16. States rights will be emphasized, with the government only there for defense and promotion of corporate privilege!
17. Severe anti immigrant legislation will come to a vote, and the racism and nativism that exists will multiply!
18. Anti Islamic violence will be encouraged by GOP rhetoric, worsening our relations with the Islamic world!
19. The Republicans will attempt to block foreign policy initiatives by the Obama Administration worldwide, and treaties will be fought against as foreign conspiracies!
20. The country will be far worse off in both domestic and foreign policy by 2012, in ways not even mentioned above!
There are certainly many other points that could be made, but this is a solid sampling of the reality that America faces if it allows fear and hate and anger to rule the day on Election Day!
The one virtue if a GOP takeover occurs is, thankfully, the ability of President Obama to veto most legislation that calls for the wrong policies or for repeal, with no chance of a two thirds override in the Congress!
Ironically, this crisis of a Republican takeover, were it to happen, might bring out a different side of the President! It might make Obama finally stop trying to be a “nice guy” and fight in the way Harry Truman fought the Republicans in 1948!
In other words, Obama might, under these circumstances, become “Give Them Hell Barack!”
It is certainly time that the President, in this fall campaign, does everything humanly possible to get the message out to the voters: We have made fundamental changes that are for the good of the American people! There is much to do, but do not set back progress and make life worse for this nation! Give us the chance to continue our work of reforming America for the benefit of all, not just the wealthy and the corporate interests! Let us continue the expansion represented by the New Deal and the Great Society! Make America once again the land of opportunity and the beacon for oppressed people around the globe! Make us proud, instead of promoting a negative attitude about the future! In so doing, we will be continuing the true message of the Founding Fathers, who saw this nation as a unique one in world history!