Barack Obama is poised on the edge of a historic time. By this time Wednesday, we may be over our celebratory hang overs, we will have heard a concession by McCain, and Obama will be on a well deserved several day vacation before he dives into the arduous task of taking over the reins of government.
If all, and I mean ALL goes well, we will have 60 democratic senators to go with this historic president. If all does not go well, we will have less than that. And that is my fear.
While I believe Barack when he says he will work with the republicans, I am not sure they will work with him. If anyone can do it, Barack Obama can bring the country together. Will the most noecon hyper conservatives even try to go along, or will there be a knee jerk reaction to anything put forth by the democratic majority?
Filibuster.
That is my fear. The democratic minority effectively used the filibuster to block a few of Bush's most odious bills. And then they rolled over on the worst of them. The filibuster is the minority party's method of ensuring there is no tyranny of the majority. It is the filibuster that allows for the minority party to stop bad bills, and good bills they disagree with. It effectively ensures that a true majority of the Senate supports a given initiative.
The democratic senate has not acted on judges appointed by Bush, thus blocking an important step to Karl Rove's permanent majority. If we do not have a 60 vote majority in the senate, an Obama presidency may have the same challenges from the right, as Bush did from the left.
Each of Baracks initiatives has to get through the senate to become enacted. In a majority house, this may be easy. Provided of course, that the democratic representatives also agree to play along. Unless there is a 60 vote majority in the senate, some of these initiatives will be stalled by a minority. Barack will need to bring the republicans into the fold, at least some of them, to ensure he gets his agenda through congress.
I want to see re-regualtion of the financial markets. I want to see the Iraq war ended, I want to see taxes more progressive. I want to see a solid health care initiative. I want to see the promise of hope realized.
All it takes is 41 Senators who disagree with me, to lose it all.
Now is the time to start working to ensure a repeat of 1994 does not happen. Now is the time to end the divisive politics of the last 14 years, or longer. Prove Newt Gingrich wrong. Prove Karl Rove wrong. Prove all the punits, consultants, and other divisive idiots wrong.
The one true promise of Barack Obama I want to see come true, is the end to divisive politics, and the coming of a new indivisible America.