What this election will mean

I guess you can say I am in the mood to make a think piece today.  Each day is a new
day.  Yesterday, I felt in a problem solving mood.  Today, it is more of a philosophical
mood.  The nature of existence, about life.  And how it applies to current events,
such as the coming election.

I was thinking an election is like a war.  At the end of the war, there is a winner
and a loser.  Or it can be a stalemate, without a clear winner nor loser.  But a
war will have an outcome of some kind.  And from that outcome, you will have to pick
up the pieces and start anew.  Even a winner in a war will have problems to deal with.
A war can leave a lot of bad feelings, and perhaps the lust for vengeance on the
part of the loser.  Perhaps the loser doesn't accept his loss.  Or many followers of
the lost cause don't accept defeat.  In the end, the fruits of victory are short
lived.  One could ask, what gets resolved by this?  Well, the thing that gets resolved
is question of who is the boss.  The boss stays the boss as long as the boss can
win the wars.  When that stops happening, then you get a new boss.

So as this thinking as applied to the coming elections gives us what?  The old
bosses are the Democrats.  Can they hang on, or will they get knocked off by the
Republicans?  Or will there be a stalemate?  Not a clear cut decision, but a
decision that will require power sharing.  No definite boss, but a committee of
bosses.  When the dust settles, what will it all mean?

I think a stalemate means confusion.  Neither side can force a definite outcome.
Neither side is stronger than the other.  Without a definite boss, you don't have
definite leadership.  If leadership by committee is best, then this is the best
outcome.  Otherwise, it is not a good outcome.  Frankly, I don't believe in the
former.  I think you need an effective leader.  Unfortunately, I think we are
headed for a stalemate of one kind or another.  If the Republicans win big, then
they will only weaken Obama.  They can't take him out unless the Democrats get
annihilated.  That won't happen.  The Democrats are too strong.  Or the Republicans
are too weak.  But the Democrats are not strong enough to hold on to all power.
They are going to be weaker than before.  It is only a matter of degree to how
much weaker.  But this doesn't lead to a better outcome in my opinion.  Only a
complete rout will do that, and it won't happen.

The only reason the Democrats are going to get weakened is that voters are not
happy with them.  But making them weaker is not going to be much of an improvement.
Making the Republicans stronger won't make them the new boss either.  The best
they can hope for is to slow down the Democrats.  But this is not leadership.  It
is premeditated drift.  If the voters are unhappy with the Democrats then they
should drop them like a hot potato.  Why keep them on at all?

There is a school of thought that says gridlock or stalemate is good.  This is no
doubt an artifact of the Clinton years.  Neither side could impose its will during
that time, but instead, checked each other off.  But there was no clear direction
back then either.  The country drifted toward the 911 event.  This brought recession
and a real shooting war that continues today.  Not everything about the Clinton
years was good.  The economy was good, but dangers were left unheeded and flashed
into fully spectacular form with the 911 attacks.

I am a little worried about a big Republican win.  But I am also a little worried
about a Democratic win.  To top it all off, I am worried about a stalemate of all
stalemates.  A stalemate of all stalemates would be a big Republican win in the House, and a
narrow win by the Democrats in the Senate.  The Democrats would lose the initiative
in Congress, but could hang onto to the more powerful long range power centers in
the Senate and White House.  Nothing new could get accomplished.  Just another
struggle for power and control going into the next election two years from now.
There would be a tendency toward drift again.  While that happened, new dangers
could arise which will not get addressed.

The only conceivable chance of a good outcome, in my opinion, would be a wholesale
repudiation of the Democrats.  It would have to be of such magnitude that they
would be unable to stop the Republicans from assuming full control of the government.
That means removing Obama and Biden and replacing them.  This sounds rather extreme
and will not happen.  But it would be for the best.  Otherwise, we have to suffer
for another two years of this.  A reversal of course must take place, the sooner
the better.  If the Democrats aren't the ticket, then send them home.  All of them.

And so the most likely outcome will be a stalemate.  Maybe most see this as the
best outcome.  I think it is not so good.  Maybe it is the worse outcome.  It comes
from confusion.  Confusion that breeds cynicism and defeatism.  It will have
corrosive and toxic effects.  This will result in a situation so bad that a change
will be demanded.  At that point, a new leadership will emerge and this time, it
will last for a long time.  But we are not at that point yet.  It may take another
two years for that.

But what about the other side?  What about the Democrats winning big?  What if they
hold onto power, only slightly weakened?  In that case, you would have to believe
that the last two years have been a good thing.  I think you would have to be
living in a bubble to believe that.  Perhaps that bubble still has to burst.  It
won't be pretty.