Lesson No. 1
November 16, 2006 at 10:42 am by Web Editor in NewsPeople can draw plenty of lessons from last week’s election.
I’ve got one for congressional Republicans: Reality catches up with you.
Did you really believe the slogans and bumper stickers you plastered us with all these years amounted to some infallible governing philosophy? Did you really think every idea cooked up by you and your campaign contributors would solve America’s problems? Did you really think nobody would notice that your luxury junkets and snuggly relations with lobbyists amounted to corruption?
Most of all, did you actually convince yourself that a foreign policy based on the principle of shoot-first-ask-questions-later would make us more friends than enemies?
Sooner or later, reality catches up with you.
It may be too late for congressional Republicans to understand that. Demographic changes and the bad taste George W. has left in our mouths may have soured most Americans on those guys for a generation.
But Georgia Republicans might do well to heed last week’s lesson. They’ve been busy congratulating themselves for running over the already-dead possum that was the Georgia Democratic Party. They shouldn’t get too comfortable.
As this week’s CL cover story by John Sugg and Max Pizarro makes clear, this state faces major challenges over the next few years, ranging from schools and traffic to taxes and water. But Republicans managed to win their mandate without articulating much in the way of solutions for those very problems.
The plan most GOP lawmakers seem to gravitate toward for fixing Atlanta’s transportation woes amounts to little more than a gravy train for campaign-contributing road builders. Health care? Everybody will get health insurance if we just unloose the power of the free market (yeah, right). Taxes? Cut away! And so on.
But, Republicans, beware. Someday, Georgians will notice that Johnny can’t read, can’t get to where he wants to go, is getting thirsty and can’t afford to go to the hospital. And who knows? That could be the same day Democrats have finally gotten their act together. Like I say, reality catches up with you. Then, it bites back.
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