The obligatory election post

So, big changes are going down in Washington. Or, at least, the parties in control of Congress look to change. Whether this will lead to significant legislative change is open to debate. Democrats tend to like higher taxes (or, at least, higher inflows of cash) and bigger government, and the Republican congress over the last six years has overseen huge inflows of cash (mainly due to increased tax revenues) and a huge increase in the size of government. That last point traditionally isn't a Republican strength, so I'm not sure how much the Democrats will really change.

Truth be told, I voted for Claire McCaskill on Tuesday. I have nothing against Jim Talent, but I am a small-government conservative, and the current batch of Republican leaders were very much not in line with my thinking, so my vote was less of a pro-McCaskill vote and more of an anti-Republican leadership vote. Other than that, most of the positions I voted for were losers. Todd Akin won, but Sandra Thomas lost (she was really underfunded in comparison to Sue Montee), the stem cell amendment passed, the tobacco tax amendment failed, and the Valley Park-district property tax increase passed.

I take solace in the fact that national Republican leadership was really quite lousy, and seeing them out the door isn't causing me any pain and suffering. Seeing Democrats in charge may cause pain and suffering, but only if they treat their leadership period as an opportunity for endless recriminations and political payback. If they are serious about responsible government, then God bless 'em, as they would have to try really hard to be lousier than the latest Republican leadership.

And for the record, the "mainstream media" (whatever that means, but that is the term everyone is using these days) is saying this whole election was a referendum on Iraq, but I think that is only a minor part of the whole picture. Republicans had become so corrupt that for many of us red-blooded Republicans votes for Democrats were in the books for the first time in years. Look at Virginia: exit polls show that ~4,000 die-hard republicans voted for Webb, which was more than the margin by which he beat Allen. We just got sick of dealing with our own team, so we decided to help them lose to teach them a lesson. Will they learn it? Only time will tell.