The Moderate Right's Dilemma

It has been already mentioned that in the recent elections, the two primary choices for any given congressional seats were "Iraq!" and "Aaaaah!", to which most people checked off the latter (as if Congress were able to directly affect war policy with Bush in the White House). I do not blame these people, and in many districts I may have done the same. However, for a member of the center-right, the question was not as clearly defined. The Republicans have many people whom my political ideology lines up with nicely. The problem is if I were to list them, you would see the names of congressmen pushed to the outer fringe of their party and virutally abandoned by the neo-con/old guard faction controlling the party. The Democrats, on the other hand, did little to offer me a credible alternative. I, like Lynn and in contrast to Joey, think that simple "cut and run" cannot be an option in Iraq. Anyone wihout an (R) next to their name on my ballot in '06 did not see it that way.

The kind of Democrat who I would have voted for is a Jeremy Fischer type: responsible, moderate, and possessing an agenda of actual reform rather than simply nay-saying of anything Republican. If anyone saw his campaign material, he was running as the Republican party should be running. Specifically targeted tax cuts and improved infrastructure to stimulate the economy and an environmental policy to find a middle ground between the environmentalist and the industrialist-sportsman are both things the Republican party could have adopted had it not been controlled by a leadership bent on all-or-nothing ("all" being "crap we want - and we want a continued war in Iraq").

Maine instead were given Mike Michaud, Tom Allen (incumbants), and Jean Hay-Bright as the Democratic options. Michaud is a union-elected politician who has shown, in the two occassions I have seen him speak, the ability to comment only on the utterly inconsequential trifecta of his Franco-American roots, his education policy, and his policy on veterans' affairs. Allen (and this is an open question to either the esteemed representative or Joey)... who is he!? Hay-Bright had no chance of beating Snowe, but nonetheless her platform was the aformentioned "Aaaaah!".

And so for better or worse, I voted mostly Republican (with a few exceptions), but Congress is soon to be a distinctly Democratic body. As a right-leaning swing vote, I would like to join with many in America and challenge the Democratic party to take advantage of the next two years and please, please, please do something! We've just seen what happens when you don't.