Surviving Post Election Doldrums

When the Cheering Stops and the Work Begins the Party Winds Down

Nov 4, 2008

The political immune system is at it's most vulnerable on November 5th as the nation wakes up to the end of campaigning and realizes that Utopian ideals demand hard work.

November 5th is perhaps the most anticlimactic day every four years for many Americans. Lawn placards advertising voter preferences will be taken down or left to the elements to decompose. Commercial space on television will give way to adds featuring the latest super drugs with the familiar “ask your doctor” bid for our medical dollars. And millions of Americans will not pack up and move to Canada because their party lost. November 5th takes the fun out of politics and reminds us that democracy is a daily, on-going process, at least for the next few years.

Americans will settle back into daily routines as newspaper headlines proclaim the latest Hollywood scandals. The Middle East wars will continue to rage, the cost of living will not become more manageable, and the nation will still be heavily dependent on foreign oil. National elections and the hype accompanying them give a false sense of security and the illusion that November 5th marks the beginning of a Utopian age. Voters buy into this notion and are quick to find fault as campaign promises are lost in the Washington gridlock.

When Democrats won control of Congress in 2006 there were high expectations that involvement in Iraq would end swiftly. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised Americans a “new direction for our country.” Two years later federal deficits are higher than ever, an economic meltdown was averted at the midnight hour through patchwork tinkering, and victory in the Middle East is still illusive. Pundits resurrected Harry Truman’s 1948 appellation of a “do nothing Congress.”

Significant changes occur with true mandates such as Franklin D Roosevelt’s in 1932. Dramatic changes to the health care industry will take time and will be met with a barrage of lobbyist opposition as well as possible court challenges. Every American will not be covered in a health care plan on January 21, 2009. On October 20, Senator Joe Biden warned Americans that an “international crisis” will test the new president within six months of the Inauguration. Crises have a way of derailing the best laid plans, often with long term consequences. 9/11 occurred nine months into the first year of George Bush’s administration.

The cure may be to begin the 2012 election on November 5th. Key issues would remain in the forefront and those newly elected would face pressure to produce realistic solutions based on their campaign promises. After loosing the 1824 election to John Quincy Adams as a result of a vote in the House of Representatives orchestrated by Speaker Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson coolly began his 1828 bid in which he resoundingly defeated Adams. Jackson and his supporters kept the issues before the people and the franchise was expanded in those four years by almost 900,000 white males, most voting for Jackson in 1828.

Every four years the world focuses on the United States to observe Democracy in action. But elections are like Christmas morning or New Year’s Eve. On December 26th lifeless trees litter sidewalks, tinsel blowing in the wind, and by January 2nd most New Year’s resolutions have gone the way of the Dodo. The preparation is forgotten as revelers sober up to the fact that everyday life must go on until the next big party.

The copyright of the article Surviving Post Election Doldrums in US Elections is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish Surviving Post Election Doldrums in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.