Post-Election Reflections

By Dr. Henry Flores, NewsTaco

Well, votes have been cast and counted and we woke up Wednesday morning looking at a mitigated disaster. Not unmitigated. After all I have a reputation as an optimist. Still, the election results were not good for the country generally but may prove beneficial in the long run.

Elections Bad for the Country

The national election outcome, Republicans gaining control of the Senate and tightening their grip over the House of Representatives, means that we are headed for more gridlock over the last two years of the Obama Administration. The Senate Majority Leader will be Mitch McConnell of Kentucky who will not only give direction to Republicans in that august body but will also serve as the public spokesperson for the Koch Brothers who financed his campaign among others. What we may see is a senate, led by Ted Cruz, who will take down the Affordable Care Act and begin talks to impeach the president. Why impeach the president, because he is a Black guy, he pulled our economy out of a near depression, and led the nation against Osama Bin Laden? Makes no sense but that is what got elected to control the national legislature last night, irrationality.

The Koch Brothers now have bought the Supreme Court of the United States and both national legislative chambers. The only remaining branch of government the Kochs don’t own is the presidency but give them time, 2016 is just around the corner. What does this mean in 2016?

So, one of the “bad” outcomes of this election is that it substantiates, legitimizes, if you will, that anonymous donors can give any amounts of money they want to buy (sorry, win) any election they wish! Democracy as we know it went down the drain this election cycle and only the voices of the very few, the very super rich, and the very narrow-minded were heard.

Elections Good for the Country

Now that I got that out of my system there are some good things that can be said about this election. On the national level, Republicans won control of the national legislature. What?!? them the opportunity to put forth a national legislative agenda and be the voice of the people. This also gives them the opportunity of showing their arrogance, lack of intelligence, and how badly they can govern.

Other good things about this election were that pot was legalized in Oregon and Washington, D.C. joining three other states. Maybe we can get it legalized in Texas soon? There is talk of doing just that in the Republican controlled state house so who knows? GMO labelling, while not winning in two states where it was on the ballot, came to the forefront of national attention in this election. Both initiatives were overwhelmingly defeated due to massive campaign financing by Monsanto, DuPont and other agricultural/chemical corporations. Nevertheless, we will see more publicity and education on this issue and I’m betting we will see more attempts to join Europe in insisting that our food not contain poisonous chemicals.

Concluding Observations

As we say in politics. You win some and lose some and live to fight another day. Nevertheless, we did manage to live up to one democratic ideal. We had a regularly scheduled election free of violence and disruption a record that has lasted more than 200 years. Who can beat that? Still, there is much that needs reforming and improving. For one, we are spending too much on election campaigns; so much that we are endangering the individual consciences of our elected officials. We need to live up to another democratic ideal better and that is electing officials of and by the people who will represent the people and not the interests of the few.

Henry Flores, PhD, is a Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University.