A Democrat-controlled Congress will force us to relive the past instead of helping us prepare for the future.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who would become speaker of the House, told The Washington Post a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations targeting the Bush administration.

She said the House would investigate the White House’s first-term energy task force and would likely investigate the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Also, she was unwilling to rule out impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

But, is a long series of investigations really what’s best for the citizens of this nation?

Unequivocally and flatly: No, it is not.

To begin, President Bush has more hateful attacks against him than practically anyone else alive. The man and his policies are attacked every single day by members of the elite media, bloggers, authors, comedians, professors, etc. And, this is fine, because it’s an important part of our freedom.

But, should the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, the nation will expect leadership from them. We must not have divisive, immature partisanship that does nothing to confront the problems of today. If the Democrats turn the nation into a chaotic mess, then they will have betrayed the trust of the electorate.

The people voting for the Democrats do so — I hope — because they believe there needs to be a change in the policies of the last several years. Simply attacking Republicans is not the change these voters are demanding.

If there is to be any hope for a Democrat-controlled House, it would have to be optimistic and reflexive. Optimistic because we need leaders who believe in the ideals laid out in our Constitution, that America is a beacon of hope in a bleak world and that freedom and liberty shall conquer tyranny and despotism. In addition, America needs a Congress reflexive enough to recognize past mistakes, but that retains the moral authority to confront future problems. We need men and women not tied down to any particular course out of partisanship, but dedicated to finding solutions.

America needs a Congress that rejects moral relativism and that is unafraid to declare the ideologies of evil — socialism, communism, Islamo-fascism — for exactly what they are: evil.

America cannot go forward by looking at the past. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress should be held accountable for the votes they have cast. But, Democrats should remember they live in a glass house. If they simply attack the Republicans for the mistakes of the past six years, it will inevitably come back to them in two or four years. Instead, they should take advantage of however many seats they pick up, and work to make America and the world better.

Matthew White is a senior magazine journalism major and point/counterpoint columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].