Elections 2012

.

With all the fussing about the Presidential elections, you'd think that nothing else was going on.  From Wikipedia I get the following information, which you use at your own risk obviously.  But you might be surprised at how much more is going on.

The US Senate: more than 30 seats are being contested across the country.  Some 20 Democrats are up for election, and 10 Republicans.  Things could change a great deal if the Democrats win a greater majority in the Senate, no matter which way the White House goes.  Of course, better minds than mine have already decided whether or not these seats are likely to change hands, and that's something I deplore about present-day politics.

The US House of Representatives: all 435 seats are up for election.  In other words, anything can happen, if you ignore prognostification about incumbents and upsets.  Of course, redistricting has upset the chances of various party favorites retaining their seats (again, according to the prognostifications), and many well-liked Democrat candidates running against each other.  (I would wish very hard for Democrats to re-district to the disadvantage of Republicans if the Democrats get the opportunity.  I think the only way out of this constant gerrymandering is to carve the country into square blocks, and return one representative per x citizens per block.  (Just forget about Montana completely.  Just kidding.)

The Capitol on a rainy day

I can't quite make sense of the Wikipedia entry; perhaps there is a summary somewhere.  But it seems to me that, if Democrats were willing to vote for Democrat candidates despite major deficits in character, charisma and intelligence among them, we could very well have at least a temporary majority in the House.  Unfortunately, of course, many of these Democrat candidates are probably Republicans in disguise, and are likely to turn into pumpkins at midnight.

The big problem Democrats have (and I hope the Republicans don't find out) is that it appears difficult to find Democrats willing to run for election.  The intelligent members of the party are too disillusioned with the electoral process and the business of politics in Washington.  The more optimistic members of the party are often not bright enough to cope with the viciousness of their Republican opponents.  Let's face it: you have to be pretty stupid to consider politics as a career.  Or you have to be a crook.

The young people in College this year are reputedly very idealistic; I hope this is true.  I hope at least some of them are also intelligent and stubborn enough to stay the course.  Obama is a fabulous example of a man who seems to be idealistic and resilient; such a fellow comes along only once in a long while.  It is disheartening to see how little visible support he gets from the rank-and-file Democrats and other liberals.  Perhaps some of this support will be more visible in this election year.

But I wish there was more interest in getting House Democrats elected.  There is very little progress with wrong-headed Republicans crowding the House.

Arch