After the Midterms, Election Season Gives Way to Holiday Season

The midterm election season is now over. Every four years in Harford County, the landscape becomes so decorated with signs and residents arrive home to find enough of the candidates’ palm cards stuck in their door that I believe the election season should be deemed a holiday festivity. I can see this happening. The campaign signs would be much better looking if they have colored, flashing lights decorating them and fundraising events would be much more enjoyable if small children could sit on candidates’ laps telling them what they, or even their parents, want for Election Day. Imagine a small child sitting telling a candidate, “Senator, Mommy wants lower taxes, less government waste and the repeal of Obamacare and I want an X-Box and Legos.”

When the midterms were all said and done, it was reported that Harford County voters largely voted for Republicans. Having lived in Harford County my entire life, I understand that many residents of Harford County tend to have conservative views that range from moderate to staunch. I find this amusing given that they live in a county that was named after Henry Harford, the illegitimate son of Frederick Calvert, the sixth and last Lord Baltimore. Perhaps even the most hard-line conservative would subject themselves to rational thought if we proposed changing the name to O’Malley County, after the State of Maryland’s re-elected Governor. After all, both of Governor O’Malley’s parents were married, he decreased the size of State Government by laying off its employees, he sends his children to private, religious schools, and his budgets have been approved in the past by Republicans such as Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria. What’s that, Harford County conservatives? You still want to call it Harford County? It sounds much better to you? Okay.

Now that the election is over and the Republicans have seized control of the United States House of Representatives from the Democrats, then surely Republican supporters can no longer complain of being left out of the legislative process in Washington, right? Surely, the Democrats and the Republicans will be able to work together. Now, the Republicans can finally have a give and take with President Obama and the leaders of the still-Democratic United States Senate, right?

One demonstration of this willingness to work across party lines came Mitch McConnell, the senior Senator from Kentucky and still the Senate Minority leader, had a message for President Obama and the elected Democrats left in Congress with regard to the agenda for the next two years in a speech given to the Heritage Foundation two days after the election. “If the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our direction.” Note that Senator McConnell never said he wanted to cooperate.

It should be worth noting that even a candidate as heavily embraced by the Tea Party as Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts is coming under fire from the Tea Party for, take a deep breath at this one, actually working with Democrats on legislation!

I feel so confident about the Republicans working with the Democrats that I am starting a betting pool with my friends about how long it will take before Rand Paul forces Harry Reid to worship Aqua-Buddha.

Come to think of it, given that Democrats kept the Senate and lost the House, shouldn’t likely House Speaker John Boehner be the tough one, with Senator McConnell being the one to nearly break out in tears?

Now that State Senator Andy Harris was successful in taking a Congressional seat by defeating Congressman Frank Kratovil, he has his own thoughts on working with the Democrats when it comes to important issues, such as protecting the Chesapeake Bay and the watershed area.

“If it is going to be costly and if it’s going to harm the economy,” the Congressman-elect said to the Baltimore Sun the day after he won the election, “then I don’t think it’s going to be implemented as soon as it’s going to be.”

There are portions of the Chesapeake Bay that are polluted and it needs to be reduced. And now the First Congressional District, which features the entire Maryland portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is right next to the Chesapeake Bay, will have a congressman that takes the attitude that if it costs too much money, then efforts needed to protect the bay may have to wait until a time that has not yet been announced.

Thanks to Andy Harris, not only can we save money by not protecting the bay, I can also save money by not buying any Old Bay seasoning to enhance the flavor of anything I eat that comes out of the bay. Hell, the polluters will be taking care of that for me!

Yes, the bay won’t be salvageable, but at least corporations will be able to make profits and supposedly hire new people! Don’t you just love capitalism?

Incidentally, I’ve met Andy Harris. The first occasion was when he was giving a speech at the dedication of the Veronica “Roni” Chenowith community center in Fallston. During his speech, he reflected back to the time when he first heard of the Harford County councilwoman who passed away in March of 2009 after a battle with leukemia. According to Harris, in front of Ms. Chenowith’s friends and family including her husband and her children, “I’m from Baltimore County, so when I first heard the name, I thought Roni was a man.”

That’s interesting, Andy, because I have never thought that about you.

Now that 2010 is over and candidates are gearing up for the 2012 campaign season, Sarah Palin has a message to anyone who wants to run for office and those who want to support them. The byline on her submission to the National Review Online reads, “Have an intelligent message and fight for your right to be heard.” Well, Sarah, you certainly do have the second part down.

It is only the failure of Palin to grasp the first part of that statement (you know, the one about the “intelligent message”) that made my mother, another Sarah, tell me that she is ashamed to have the same first name as the one-time half-term Governor of Alaska.

Now that the midterm season is over, I can now focus on something less stressful than reading campaign literature and taking robocalls. I can now focus on spending time with my family at Thanksgiving and elbowing my way through crowds to complete my Christmas shopping. With another election season in the books, I understand people will be a lot less temperamental at fighting over a parking space in the name of peace and goodwill towards man.