The Sunshine Empire

If someone were to be discussing some business or enterprise that many Americans engage in, the tag line is usually, “widget sales, a $1.7 billion dollar industry.” The American economy is the largest in the world, but how much is politics needed to supplement the GDP? While I don’t pretend to be an economist, just taking the cost of elections for the House of Representatives and Senate, 2.3 billion dollars were spent in the 2006 election cycle. The Iraq war costs $12 billion a month, so it’s not an astounding number, but a large one none the less.

The numbers continue to go up, and the numbers surprisingly are going in favor of the traditionally poor Democrats. I was surprised to learn in the Wall Street Journal that never in the 30 years the government has been tracking campaign contributions has the Democratic party out raised their Republican counterparts. While Democrats had managed to keep the Congress for almost half of that time, they have been strangers in the Executive Branch for the most part since the days of FDR. But where are you going the reader might ask, and I can tell you I was thinking of George W. Bush. Whatever your feelings on the value of the incursion into Iraq, it is hard to argue that it single-handedly has destroyed the Republican party as a governing party. You may think this is unjust, but I challenge you to tell me otherwise. Before the Iraq debacle, the President was historically popular with a people who had voted 500,000 more times for his opponent than him in the election of 2000. The Republican party had defied history and had actually made gains in the House and Senate in the Republican President’s first midterm election. Even his Halloween dress up party on the U.S.S. Lincoln looked to be a smart idea at the time. Since that time his only political victory has been his first election in 2004. With Bush having spent some of the summer of 2004 below 50% approval, he owes that victory more to the Democrats shitting the bed nominating John Kerry than actual love and brilliance on his part.

But the question remains, was Iraq worth it politically? It has obviously accomplished nothing militarily, and every best case scenario has become a worst case at best. The dreams of WMD, Democracy, stability, and sanity are all in the dustbin. Republicans admonish Democrats on the consequences of leaving Iraq, and how they will be responsible for what comes afterward. This is a room full of straw men. While Democrats bear responsibility for laying down like most of my ex-girlfriends at a moments notice with a stranger when it came to the vote in 2003, this is the Republicans’ baby. Have fun with having just the wing nut jobs on the Supreme Court as your only grip on government after January of 2009.