It’s Election Day here in America, which means one thing: About a quarter of the population, maybe even less, will once again hand the reigns of power over to some new group of politicians promising change who will quickly drown in the fetid swamp upon which Capitol City was built.
Sound cynical? Perhaps, but hey, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a re-energized GOP will force “change” in Washington, maybe the left and right will join hands and work together to craft legislation for the betterment of the nation. If “Jersey Shore” can get renewed, anything’s possible. But when anger is apparently a winning campaign platform, it’s hard to feel very optimistic.
On a programming note, I’ll be working today and tonight on the elections, as part of WSJ.com’s live show tonight (8 p.m.-2 a.m.) Since I’m going to be here anyway, I’ll also be keeping things lively here and on our Twitter stream.
Kent Engelke, over at Capital Securities, has this take on the election:
Perhaps the only certainty to write about today’s election is that the winners might be the next losers. In my view society is angry and tired. It is now demanding accountability and common sense approach to policy, perhaps demanding the end of the entitlement era. If the environment does not change by 2012, I believe there can be yet another change.
John hit on something very important this morning in his post on hardship. The fact is we suffered a deep wound, and millions of Americans suffered from it. But the political reaction, no matter what the politicians say, wasn’t to bailout the citizenry, or even “the system,” it was to bail out the politically connected players, and those were almost exclusively big corporations. That the “solutions” offered didn’t seem to actually solve much of anything makes that point all the more clear.
That’s what this election is all about. It’s probably what the next election will be all about as well.
