A good year for Dems

Christopher Taylor

2006 has been a troubling year for conservative politics.

But I don’t count those candidates out yet. They have access to resources that could be potentially devastating for the Democrats — also known as negative campaigning.

I recently sat down in front of the television and watched smear campaign ads, one delivered right after another from both parties. Apparently Rep. Sherrod Brown missed a lot of Congressional votes. And then Sen. Mike DeWine missed a lot of votes. DeWine doesn’t support our troops. And we all know Sherrod Brown let us down.

The negative campaign tool could play an important part in getting last-minute independents to side with a specific candidate. But as of recent, the Republicans have a lot of work to do to retain the congressional majority. They have to erase a pedophile scandal from voter’s memory, convince Americans that the name Abramoff does not exist and remind people that there have been no American casualties in the Iraq war.

Locally, the Buckeye state’s stormy Republican party is disorganized this year. In reply, they feel they must throw the most faulty accusations at Democrats in order to win votes back. National politics fair even worse for the GOP, as issues such as abortion in South Dakota, minimum wage and higher education will drive core Democratic strongholds, such as minorities and youth voters, to the polls. That’s why I believe this will be a good year for the Dems after having the past three elections for Congress go strongly to the Republicans.

Sure, it doesn’t help that Rep. Mark Foley, whose name is actually that of a tube and collecting sack stuck in the urethra to drain urine from the bladder, likes to text message 16-year-old boys and that his quadruple-chinned speaker of the House counterpart chooses “no comment” to the immoral actions. And after the scandal broke loose, Foley was probably told to come out as gay so that the American public would understand why he did it. Foley may be gay, but more importantly — he’s an idiot.

But there are so many additional factors playing in this year’s midterm. The Republican Party is factionalizing into the pro-Bush and anti-Bush, as if it were a campaign issue. And it is a very important issue that could put the Party of the People back into power in Congress.

The people of the United States are not happy with the current state of the shameful union. We aren’t respected in the world, North Korea is now a nuclear threat, we are playing a large part in the destruction of the environment, a woman’s uterus is still in the hands of politicians, our esteemed military is fighting for the government (not the people) and gay couples battle every day for equality. It is for these reasons we are beginning to see the once great party of Lincoln now fail.

Predictions: I believe Ohioans will walk into the polling station associating $3.25 gas with the buttons that they end up pushing to elect their leaders. They will remember their dreary economy, local soldiers who have died and their fraudulent, term-limited governor. Ohio’s overwhelming GOP-dominated legislature may not go blue, but the Dems will certainly pick up seats.

More importantly, conservatives are freaked out that they won’t be able to dominate the political agenda at the polls and God’s will won’t be done.

And they are probably right. Instead, it will be the will of the people.

Christopher Taylor is a senior nursing major and point/counterpoint columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].