The Mid-Terms

In a scene at the beginning of the second season of The West Wing, the President's staff sit outside of Josh Lyman's apartment block. They sip beers, and muse on the results of the Mid-Term elections to both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Millions of dollars spent, all to get the same result. Nothing has changed. The Democrats and the Republicans have the same number of seats in Congress. The end result of the elections - exactly the same as before.

Of course, you can't say the same about the elections yesterday in the US. The House is in the hands of the Democrats, the Senate could go the same way. Two years after grudgingly giving him the benefit of the doubt, the American people have told George W. Bush to go and fuck himself. And not before time if you ask me.

There are some immediate ramifications of this. Nancy Pelosi is on her way to becoming the first female speaker of the House of Representatives, whilst Donald Rumsfeld is on his way to the job centre. There is a lot of speculation about what will happen next, of what will happen with the Democrats taking control of the House. As far as I can see, not a lot.

Sure, the Democrats could make things very awkward for Bush but short of impeaching him (which is little more that a far left wet dream) the simple fact is that Bush will be in power for the next two years. He remains the President. And the Democrats have the House for the first time in over a decade. They are not going to do anything too radical that might prevent them from retaining control in two year's time. Furthermore, the next Presidential election starts here - and whoever will be the standard bearer for the Democrats will want to be able to run on the record of the Democratic congress - and in order to appeal to Middle America, (s)he will want the Congressional Democrats to be perceived as moderate and dependable, not dangerous radicals. Bush will struggle to get his more radical agenda implemented, but he has struggled to do this since he sat and fiddled whilst his political capital was washed away with the tragedy in New Orleans.

And aside from anything else, all that has really happened is the end of the 2006 elections. The USA now lives in a state or near constant electioneering, and the focus will now shift to 2008, when there is the chance for a real change - and America votes on who will be the next leader of the Free World.