Well, That Certainly Turned Out Much Better Than Expected

It was indeed surprising just how strong of a reaction by American voters to reform their government towards the better despite all of the constraints of gerrymandering of districts and corporate dominance of the political system. Given all of these constraints, voters largely displayed some real discernment, understanding of issues and wisdom. Yesterday, I was locked in watching the tight struggle for Senate control. With both the Senate and the House control, working people may get a far better shake from the new Congress.

The resignation of Donald Rumsfeld was another important bonus today. Clearly the Iraq policy is not working. As a "peace mission" to stabilize the country, the policy is a complete failure. If a new policy results that demands that the Iraqi government clean up the corruption, disarm the militia groups and seperate the militia groups from the Iraqi government and police, then yesterday's election was indeed worthwhile.

And Congress is dominated by big lobby efforts, where 66 lobbyists exist for every member of Congress. If all of the "culture of corruption" that goes hand in hand with this is curtailed in some way with "lobby reform" of some type, then this election also proved worthwhile for this.

Here's to a hope that some real constructive steps to rid the country of the cycle of lobbyist and politician corruption will result from this election. Generally women office holders have proven themselves more honest than men, and there is fond hope that Nancy Pelosi will bring in a new era of more honest government in Washington. Pelosi has come from a good Italian Roman Catholic background of values, ethics and hard work. This background is a good basis to expect a better government from her.

There is at least some reason to be optimistic after this election compared to some other recent ones which only seemed to rubber stamp what's wrong with system and embrace it.