Election 2008

First of all, let me say that if your corporation's address is a file folder in Barbados, or the mortgage on your vacation home in Palm Springs depends on Exxon continuing to post record profits, or you are some poor ignorant fool with one pair of jeans and an $8.00 an hour job who thinks he can afford to be a Republican-click away from this story fast. Trust me, you are not going to like it.

Understandably, with all the Presidential election stuff filling what little time the mainstream media can afford to take away from Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, it is easy to forget the other important election 2008 that will take place this November. Yep, I'm talking about the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the 35 U.S. Senate seats that will be filled at the same time as Barack Obama wins the popular vote by a landslide. (Don't count your chickens yet though, because the electoral college could still lay a rotten egg on who gets to be President).

Let's pretend for a moment though, that the electoral college won't ignore the will (whim?) of the people, and we get a President who really intends to put the American people ahead of the corporate greed that has dominated how Washington works for at least three decades. What will happen if nothing changes in Congress, or if enough voters just put their X beside the name that NBC (GE) or Fox (Disney Corp) tell them is the coolest, in between showing Britney getting into another scrape with the law?

Here's what will happen. We'll end up with a hog-tied President who can't get much done besides making sure the Easter Egg thing happens on the White House lawn. I know, after seeing (during Bush's time) just how much damage a President can do, it is hard to imagine that the office of President might not be an equal and opposite force for good in the hands of another. But, Bush has enjoyed a Congress made up of Republicans and Democrats who have largely been bought by all the same special interests. 2008 would be a good year to change that while electing a President who cares that we are struggling against stagnant wages, sub-prime mortgages, high energy prices, and disappearing jobs.

On any given day for over 40 years, I have been saying "throw them all out every election until they start getting it right." But, after all, there is a better, easier, more responsible way to help make sure the next President has an ethical Congress to work with. The computer you are reading this article on will also take you to OpenCongress.org, a website that makes it easy to find out who represents you in Congress, and how they vote on issues that matter to you. Go there, sign up, enter your zip-code, and track your members of Congress. Find out how your District Representative votes, find out how your Senators vote on issues that matter to you, and throw the bums out this fall if they are looking out for the billionaires and leaving you behind. There won't be any pics of Hollywood Hotties showing their undies as they slither drunk into a limo, but we might get a government that gives a damn about Americans if we do a little homework and vote responsibly.