What the 2010 Elections Really Mean

Whether you are conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, or just and independent thinker, the 2010 “mid-term” federal elections have been a show that almost everybody has been watching. Every special interest group in the country has had their say about these elections, and every shading of political leaning has made their stand known.

For those who have a liberal political outlook, these elections have been a disaster; while for the conservatives amongst us, it has been seen as a great victory. However, it seems that everyone, right, left, and middle have been ignoring the true constitutional issue of these elections.

We live in a country that is made up of divergent viewpoints, numerous ethnic groups, and many special interests. The right to hold and express one’s personal opinion in religion, politics, your neighbor’s crabgrass and the price of eggs is guaranteed by the first Amendment to the Constitution. Somehow, in all this diversity, our government has to find a way to serve the needs of every citizen.

A key term in defining the political system that was created by the founders of this country is “checks and balances.” The three branches of government were created with this concept in mind. The congress (our parliament) writes the laws, the executive branch enforces the laws, and the judicial branch judges the laws and those who break them.

The reason that these checks and balances exist is to ensure fairness and justice for the greatest possible number of people. If one group, political party, or ideology takes control, they tilt everything in their direction. However, by allowing a variety of political viewpoints to participate together in the process of governing our nation, we force the extremists to work for moderation, compromise and a system that equally represents the viewpoints of all the people.

For the last two years, ever since the 2008 presidential elections, the Democrats, and most especially the more liberal democrats have held tight control of two branches of our government, those of the congress and the executive branch. President Obama has stated he “desired to work together with Republicans.” In practice, his way of working together with people has been to publicly ridicule anyone who held or expressed a viewpoint different than his own.

Nobody can say that President Obama has been idle in his time in office. During his two years, he has probably initiated more social changes, with farther reaching impact than any other president since Lincoln. Yes, he has been busy. But, one might ask, how is it that he has been able to accomplish so much in those two years? Simple; it is because he has been backed by a congress controlled by democrats.

What these elections have done is to restore checks and balances to our government. Will President Obama be able to accomplish as much in the next two years as he has in the last? That depends upon whether he changes his strategy, or just blames the Republicans for his failures. He will now have to learn how to work with people, how to make compromises, and how to take into account the needs and desires of people who don’t share his political beliefs.

If he doesn’t learn to do this, the federal government will be at a standstill for the next two years. The good news is that Mr. Liberal himself won’t be able to continue to remake the United States of America into his image. The bad news is that the needs of the country will not be addressed.

Mr. President, as always, we are watching to see your reaction.