I'm Just Thankful the Election is Over

Res Publica

I'm Just Thankful the Election is Over

by David Trumbull -- November 16, 2012

The incumbent President was re-elected in a close, 51% to 48% (popular vote) contest, confirming, as we have known since the 2000 election, that the Union is just about evenly split between Republican and Democratic voters. The President's party gained a few seats in both the House and in the Senate, but neither chamber will see a change in control.

The opposition had hoped that discontent with the President would be enough to turn him out of office. They were wrong. After the election some argued that the man chosen to run against the President -- a multi-millionaire from Massachusetts who did not connect well with working men and women and who had a reputation as a "flip-flopper" on important public policy questions -- was a weak candidate. Indeed, all through the race for the nomination doubts had been raised about him, but, unfortunately for the party, all the alternatives were flawed and, looking back, the choice seems inevitable.

How's that for a summary of the 2012 federal elections? For that matter, how about the 2004 federal elections? Dissatisfaction with Obama's handling of the economy and health care was not widespread enough to un-seat him, anymore than disagreement with Bush's conduct of the War on Terror was enough to defeat him. Both won narrowly (51%) over less than ideal opponents. Both saw modest gains in the House and Senate, although, unlike Bush, President Obama will start his second term without a majority in the House.

After the 2004 election I wrote in this space: "I wish I could soothe my Democratic friends by saying, 'calm down, President Bush can't do one-tenth of the Bad Things you fear he'll do.' He likewise will not do one-tenth of the Good Things I'd like him to do." I believe the same is true of President Obama.

The Republic will survive four more years of Obama. At the end we will be weaker, poorer, and have less freedom, but will shall survive and, with a change in leadership, recover. Republican House and Senate gains in 2014 will limit Obama's ability to inflict all the harm he would with a Democratic Congress. History suggests that second terms seldom go as well as the winner expects. All in all, 2016 is, already, looking to be a good year for Republicans and for the Republic.

Next Thursday I'll be thankful that we won't see and hear negative campaign ads, at least for a few months. I'll be thankful that my friends on both sides can stop sniping over politics. I'll be thankful that the United States is, as Will Rogers said before the 1932 election, too big for any one man to spoil.

Home for the Holidays

In our home—perhaps in yours too—Thanksgiving Day festivities begin with tuning the television set to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which we half watch and half just have in the background while preparing dinner. Macy’s—at least since the 1947 motion picture Miracle on 34th Street—has come to be more than just another vendor for holiday gifts, but itself a part of America’s Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday season. Yes, for many of us the Macy parade marks the beginning of the holidays.

Nevertheless, I miss the older television practice of showing not just Macy’s but bits of several department store Thanksgiving Day Santa parades. I liked when they would switch to the J.L. Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit and the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. Hudson’s Department Store in Detroit is gone, but the parade—which like the Macy’s parade started in 1924—continues as America's Thanksgiving Parade. The Gimbels parade, now called the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade is the oldest of America’s Thankgiving Day Santa parades, having started in 1920.

Locally, from the 1940s until 1972—and again in the early 1990s—a visit to the Enchanted Village in the Jordan Marsh department store in Downtown Crossing was how Bostonians inaugurated the Christmas shopping season. Remember how, up to just a few years ago, Jordan Marsh, and its rival Filene’s put up competing Christmas displays in their windows that faced each other on Summer Street?

I have nothing against R.H. Macy’s Department Store—I wish it a profitable Christmas selling season. If Americans choose for our Thanksgiving Day morning entertainment a televised, extended-length, open-air advertisement for that retailer, who am I to object? But more and more local shops are giving way to national brands and “big-box” retailers. Local events (such as the Enchanted Village) give way to a few huge national spectacles. Likewise, our political discussions are focused much more on what is happening in Washington, rather than Boston.

The problem with looking to the national scene rather than locally is that nationally most of us have little opportunity to be anything more than observers. Locally we have power to change things. As the Democrats and liberals in Washington consolidate more and more power in the hands of a few remote unelected bureaucrats in Washington, let’s be thankful this year that we still have locally elected representatives and senators in the General Court. Next year all 200 members of that body will be up for election. Have you thought of running? Surely no one is so happy with the current crop of state legislators that you can’t think of a few you’d like to see replaced. If you think it’s time for a change and you believe you have what it takes, change can begin with you!