A Conservative congress. Progress on legislation?

Speaker Boehner & Majority Leader McConnell

The 114th Congress has already begun, just yesterday Congressman John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, was reelected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Speaker Boehner needed 205 votes to win the speakership and won with 216 votes. For the past years Speaker Boehner has had to hold a possible revolt from the more Conservative elements of the GOP, namely the Tea Party. This year only twenty-four conservative Republican representatives went against the party line and voted not to elect Congressman Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Luckily for Speaker Boehner, the Republican Party, and the rest of the country Tea Party influence has been waning the past few years. The Republican National Committee during the 2014 midterm election cycle heavily vetted its congressional candidates and poured massive amounts of money into congressional primary campaigns to squash Tea Party backed upstarts whom threaten to taint the Republican Party with insensitive, ridiculous rhetoric and policy.

With that said I fear that this division within the Republican caucus right at the beginning of the 114th Congress may be, as it has been in past years, a preview of things to come. The Republican mainstream has had to take a decidedly right turn as ultra conservatives have routinely attacked any GOP members (including the congressional Republican leadership) whom sought compromise with the Democrats and to a greater extent President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Although the fire of the Tea Party may be dying down, grassroots conservative groups are still a forced to be reckoned with for the GOP. Speaker Boehner, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, may reject compromise in order to whip up conservative support for Republican’s in 2016 and retain the loyalty of rank and file members.

Speaker Boehner

With the Republican’s controlling the House and the Senate by good majorities the burden of legislating now fall upon the shoulders of Republican representatives. There still exists ultra conservatives in both the House and the Senate whom will force party leaders such as Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell to reject common sense legislation proposed by Democrats in order to whip up their conservative base. Though the threat of a loss to Democrats in the 2016 Presidential elections looms I fear that again the 114th Congress will be a do nothing Congress and that the Republican Party will remain the obstructionist party.

Obama: A Mislead Legacy

Barack Obama, the political scion, whom infused a nation with hope is no more. Instead Obama the man, Obama the Presidents of the United States, lives in his place. He was faced with high expectations, a nation left destitute, and was elected in a hyper partisan political system.

Barack Obama may have lost the faith of his party and the people, yet the good he has done has been hijacked by the obstructionism and narrative of the Republicans Party, a narrative that the Republicans crafted in order to “win” the contest that are the midterm elections.

During the recession President Obama, was able to stabilize the economy and prevent the US from sliding into a second Great Depression. He was able to the Affordable Care Act (popularly known as ObamaCare), while suffering problems decreased healthcare cost for millions of Americans. When President Obama took office GDP (Growth Domestic Product) growth was one percent, its current growth rate is now three point five percent.

President Obama’s foreign policy has been lampooned by Republicans and the public alike. Yet he successful pulled us out of the quagmire that is the Middle East and Middle Eastern Politics, furthermore his economic warfare against Russia is working, as I type the Russian ruble (Russia’s currency) is collapsing. President Obama was elected, in no small part, due to his promise to wind down wars in the Middle East, the American public does not wish to send ground troops into combat. Furthermore under President Obama AL-Qaeda’s core leadership, including but not limited to Osama Bin Laden, has been eradicated. Mission Accomplished I believe.

And yes Republicans have attacked Obama with attacks such as “ He’s not doing enough to combat ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Yet when pressed for what Obama should do the Republican Party has no answers. Republicans accuse Obama of being weak against ISIS yet are also “adamantly” against deploying troops to the Middle East.

Obama no doubt is a major factor in the Democratic Party getting overrun in the congressional midterms; Republicans, through extensive planning have been able to take control of the national mood of the nation and forge it into anti-Obama sentiment.

Were the positions reversed Democrats would use similar tactics, such as they did in the 2006 mid terms elections, by framing the midterms as a referendum on then-President George W. Bush the Democrats were able to control the Senate and House of Representatives. The Republicans now have a chance to compromise and forge a political resume that would allow a Republican to win the White House in 2016.

To the credit of Republicans Obama has also had demonstrated some measure of incompetency. From pledging US action if Bashar Al Assad crossed a redline by gassing Syrians to the failed ObamaCare rollout, Obama has shown that he is perhaps not the most effective governor of the state.

If no compromises can be found then Republicans will damage their national reputation and Obama’s legacy will truly be tarnished. If there’s one thing all Americans can agree on is that our political system is broken. Something must change.

The question is what?

A promise of change, A potential for progress

November 4th is no more, with November 5th comes promise not of progress but of change. The Republicans easily keep control of the United States House of Representatives and took control of the United States Senate. Regardless of what Democratic leaders said publicly we all expected it; from the historical lack of seats for a Presidents party six years into his term to Obama’s particular problems regarding executive leadership, the Democrats were due for a loss.

The count for the next Congress is this: Republican will have at least 246 house seats, and 52 seats in the Senate( Two races are undeclared in Louisiana and Alaska but easily lean Republican.)

I do not see the next year being productive for Washington with a Democrat executive and republican congress its quite unlikely to pass legislation

But Hope does remain.

If Obama embraces a centrist philosophy, such as Bill Clinton did throughout his presidency (but particularly in 1998), and Republicans attempt to compromise, our national leaders have a chance to rebuild America from Washington. With that said egos and political difficulties on both sides will make such a scenario improbable.

My fellow Americans do not fret about the integrity of our newly elected officials, after all we get the government we vote (of don’t vote for).

The Midterms: A Test for America

“They be a corrupt one and the hour be late,” kinda said author of Herman Melville. In two days time the fate of which political party controls our two chambers will be decided, though in reality the fate of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate was decided along ago.

Basically pundits, citizens, and anyone with halve a brain believes that the Republican Party will undoubtedly capture control of the United States.

The nation can look forward to a Congress controlled by one party and Executive Branch controlled by another. I cannot say with certainty what will happen but only look at the state of the government during the last two years of George W. Bush’s Administration. During this time the Republicans may have controlled the Executive Branch but Democrats had captured control of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate due to President’s Bush unpopularity. This period of divided government lead to political grandstanding and gridlock.

I fear with Republican control of congress complete and Democrat’s controlling the Executive Branch for at least two more years this government will maintain its current lack of productivity.

There are several reasons why Democrats will lose control of the senate and undoubtedly lose a few more House of Representative seats. One there is a historical trend in the US where the party in power, after an incumbent presidents reelection, loses Congressional seats. Two President Obama is very unpopular in the minds of most Americans, they will not reward Obama’s party with Congressional Representatives in light of his perceived failures.

Third, people whom would vote Democrat such as the young, poor, and ethic minorities rarely turnout in large number for midterm elections. Instead you are simply left with a subset of the population, the Republican subset, whom include the white, the old and the rich.

With the above factors in mind, Democrats, undoubtedly will lose control of the Senate. Obama has failed in the mind of the public, his party will be hurt because of such perceptions. I hope the new Congress will be able to work with the President, I believe though that we are going to see continual legislation coming from Congress and President Obama continually vetoing such legislation.

In the end few members of this new congress will standout and few notable pieces legislation will be passed. Simply put the current political system is broken, these midterm elections will do little to change that.