For non-biased election observers, the campaign for the midterm election that is just six days away is perhaps one of the most perplexing and disturbing. What makes this election campaign perplexing is that the pundits are saying that the GOP has a good chance of gaining control of the Senate. The disturbing aspect is that if they do, it would be bad news for America.
How can the pundits (even with their conservative bias) think that the GOP has a favorable chance of gaining control of the Senate when they have done virtually nothing to help make the country better? From the start of the president's first time in 2008, the GOP has opposed the president's policies that if given a chance would benefit Americans. In essence the GOP has no record that merits them getting control of the Senate. With the GOP controlled Congress that has the lowest approval rating in the history of the Congress – 12% – it would seem impossible for them to win control of the Senate.
What is disturbing about the possibility of a GOP controlled Senate is that it would give them the power they need to proceed with their threat of impeaching the president. They have been throwing around the 'I' word frequently even when the president has done nothing that rises to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors." If this is what the GOP plan to do if they get control of the Senate, then it will be bad for the country.
So why does the GOP have a chance to win the Senate when they have no accomplishments to show they deserve this? Two possible answers are: 1) most Americans believe the GOP message that the president is taking America down the wrong path and 2) their proxy news media, Fox TV and conservative radio talk shows have been helpful in promoting the anti-Obama message of propaganda, distortion of facts, conspiracy theories, and racial innuendos.
For this midterm election, the GOP is running on the sole issue of the president's unpopularity – albeit one that they have created. Despite the GOP Congress having an approval rating that is significantly lower than the president's, the GOP is said to have a good chance of winning the Senate. To make president Obama the primary issue of the midterm election and with no honest arguments as to why his policies are taking America down the wrong path makes it easy to conclude that the Obama-crusade is all about his race. Some desperate GOP candidates are calling out their opponents saying that they supported or voted for the president policies. This ploy is reminiscent of the Jim Crow method of ostracizing a white person who was sympathetic to a black person by calling them a "N-lover."
The Speaker of the House has not shown a willingness to work with President Obama even on issues that should be non-partisan. He has failed to call for a straight up or down vote on several key issues that adversely affect the American people. On the jobs issue, his favorite quote is "Where are the jobs?" This is like the doctor sticking his finger in a patient's wound while asking, "Where does it hurt?" The fact is the GOP Congress has stymied the president's job agenda from day one.
It is incomprehensible that the GOP has done absolutely nothing except undermining the president's agenda and making it more difficult for the economy to be stronger yet are favored by some polls to win the Senate. Specifically, the GOP's effort to thwart the president's agenda include, shutting down the government, refusing to vote and the Equal Pay Act for women, refusing to increase the minimum wage, refusing to extend the unemployment benefits, and refusing to decrease student loan interest rate.
The midterm election next Tuesday is a critical election as it will empower one party (the GOP) to continue their non-performance or the other (the Democrats) to continue their effort in making the economy stronger. Regardless of the outcome of the midterm election, the GOP needs to realize that they need to show some positive results for the next two years if they are to have a chance of the 2016 presidential election. Voters need to be cognizant of this and they need to consider seriously the following factors when they vote:
1. That President Obama inherited an economy that was on the brink of collapse and single handedly (i.e., without the help of the GOP) averted the collapse during his first term. In his second term in office, he has improved the economy despite the tremendous and unprecedented noncooperation from the GOP.
2. Near the end of his first term, the president made a courageous decision that resulted in the demise of Osama Bin-Laden and in the process rendering Al Qaeda less of a threat.
3. The president implemented the first health care reform that has helped to provide insurance coverage for millions of Americans who were not previously eligible for health care insurance.
4. The president has been prudent and deliberative in his approach in dealing with foreign crisis. This approach avoids further agony of more American soldiers losing their life and the draining of an economy that is still fragile. Calling the president weak because he has taken an approach that is not reckless and not likely to escalate the crisis is without any real merit. Americans should be grateful that they have a president that thinks before he acts when it comes to making tough decisions involving wars.
5. The unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest since the president took office in 2008. It is reasonable to think that this rate could have been lower if the GOP had supported the president's plan to put America back to work.
6. The GOP has failed to support or work with the president's immigration plan and in so doing has made the status of a program that urgently needs reform inactive.
Let's hope that voters will do the right thing and not make the GOP get control of the Senate. Should the GOP win the Senate, it will give them more power to continue their anti-Obama crusade rather than to help put America on a path of economic recovery. The GOP has wasted six years doing nothing. America cannot afford for them to waste two more years.
Mel Shim is the author of Whom God Has Blessed, Let No Man Curse (Infinity Press, 2013) and A New Perspective on Race-related Problems in Corporate American Companies (Outlook Press, 2013). http://www.jermelshim.com