The Elections Are Over!

And thank God for that!

I haven't been blogging for the last six weeks, partially because of my deployment to Iraq, but mostly because I hate how ridiculously polarized things get leading into elections. Americans seem to have such little perspective, imagining these great differences between their political parties, when in fact the Republicans and Democrats are far more alike than nearly any two other opposition parties in the world! I'm aware of that, and so the politicians' continuous need to cast each other's opponent in the devil's image has never made sense to me.

In any case, according to the newscasters, the Governator trounced Angelides in what turned out to be not a very close election at all (the Dems probably should have gone with Westly after all...), and Senator Lieberman managed to win re-election by a double digit margin-- despite being rejected by his Party in the primary. It should be clear to all (once again) that, in the bipolar American political tradition, the middle usually wins-- it's almost by design. Still, it appears that the Democrats have taken control of the House and should have a small minority there, and control of the Senate seems to hinge on outcomes in Montana and Virginia. They, like the Republicans before them, may misread the outcome as a mandate for their ideology, instead of what it really is-- a repudiation of their opponents and a clear desire to return to the center. And that's okay-- the nation can be pulled to the left right now, even if it means we get pulled too far. Eventually, the pendulum will swing back in the other direction and we'll have Republicans again, this time trying to pull us back to the right. It always does, and we always manage to stay somewhere near our center. That's what our political system was designed to do.

But, regardless of the outcome, those of us on the ground here in Iraq can be comforted by the knowledge that the Republic will survive. It may adjust-- it may even do some things I don't agree with-- but it will survive. And thank God for that.

Now the rest of us can get on with our lives...