America gives Dems mandate

CONGRATULATIONS MY DEMOCRATIC friends, you did it. You captured control of Congress. I hope the hangover from all of those victory parties is starting to wear off, because the pressure is on.

Positive changes are expected to happen and fast. Overnight, if possible.

We’re all counting on you. All of us. Blue and Red.

It turns out that the one thing that may be able to unite America is our mutual and utter frustration.

Months passed, lies ensued and American casualties in Iraq have continued to pile up.

It is nearing the end of 2006. What was expected to be a weeklong war has managed to plow through several calendars and we now find ourselves deeper in the hole than we ever have.

Even the most dedicated Republicans deep in the heart of Texas can’t help but mutter to themselves: “What in God’s name was we thinkin’?”

That’s just it — we weren’t thinking.

But, lo and behold, we’ve decided to put on our thinking caps and make some responsible decisions.

It turns out that maybe we Americans aren’t as dumb as the French may think.

The Democratic power shift in the recent elections is proof of America’s disappointment with the Republican agenda that has brought us nothing but misery over the past several years and turned us into the most vilified nation in the world.

The elections reflect a maturity growth in America. Rather than showing blind, dogged faith to the Republican Party, many American voters had enough awareness to realize the sad state of our nation and, more importantly, they realized who was responsible for bringing us to this point.

It took a bold move by a large number of Republican voters who hesitantly, yet wisely, swallowed their pride and decided to take a chance with the hippie Democrats.

As Lou Reed said, “Hey baby, take a walk on the wild side…”

Don’t feel bad or unpatriotic. You’re not traitors for voting for the Democrats.

You’re not going to hell for it and you’re not going to suddenly turn gay — you were just fed up with the idiocy and hypocrisy of our Republican-led government and that’s quite understandable.

Once your platoon leader walks you into an eighth, ninth and 10th landmine, it’s time to think about making a leadership change. That’s what we call common sense.

American voters have spoken. We’ve done our part. We were in need of a change, and we got it done. Now it’s up to the Democrats in Congress to step up to the plate and get us out of the slump that we’ve been in for too long.

Of course, it isn’t going to be easy. The Republicans have left an atrocious mess that must now be carefully sorted out and repaired.

The question everybody wants to know is: What are the Democrats going to do about the Iraq War?

Do we exit? When? And, more importantly, how do we go about it?

This is what we’ve all bought the ticket for. Granted, the would-be Republicans who sucked it up and voted Democratic perhaps paid a bit more for their ticket, but nevertheless, the Iraq War is the main event.

Everybody’s on the edge of their seats anxiously waiting for the Democrats to devise the magic potion to cure this cancerous war.

Let’s hope this Democratic Congress can produce some change and make something happen.

If so, it will make a presidential party shift in 2008 that much more likely.

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