(Untitled)

[el_bandito30]

What is the deal with all this pessimism over the Democratic takeover of Congress? I've heard a fair amount of grousing in the last few weeks that the Democrats are ineffective, not that different from the Republicans, and unlikely to change anything. I saw a political cartoon the other day that was making fun of the Democrats for revelling in the

Comments

[coreyback]

Maybe you've been around pretentious NYU students too much.

[el_bandito30]

Well, I've gotten the cynicism from some IC people too, but I think you're onto something.

[el_bandito30]

Alas, no... I'll be back in the big IC on December 18th. When do you get back? We should talk during break, like phone-type talk.

[phwbc]

For me.. its just a step in the 'left' direction.. I don't see it as a power shift in Washington. Bush is still president and can sign all the vetos he wants. Also, don't think the republicans aren't already planning, deciding and uniting behind a single candidate to win the presidency. They lost badly in 6th yr of presidential term, it's happened before.. there just playing wounded.

[el_bandito30]

But the point is that Bush can't do whatever he wants anymore. Democrats control one branch of a government the political right once had monopolized.

You're right, though; they're just playing wounded. Still, I'd be considerably less upset about McCain in '08 than a lot of other people.

[xxbroadwaygrlxx]

I agree. However you can also argue that the House and Senate change about every 14 years. So technically we should have predicted this happening.

[dulcinea_44]

yeah, basically everything i want to say has been covered by corey and Paul, but I will add that having agenda setting power means nothing if you don't have veto power. true agenda setting power lets your party dictate the direction of policy, but the President can still reject anything the democrats come up with, and the dems are powerless to stop what Bush has already successfully implemented with the exception with sunset bills, the only significant of which is the tax cuts, which don't expire until 2010 anyway. the two things that Bush will most likely agree with the Legislature on are immigration policy and maybe minimum wage, but that's only because the republican congress was more conservative in its positions than the white house.

[pacmaster]

They're right, you know. In light of my impending revolution these events come to nothing.