The Morning After

Last night I watched the election results pour in with some fellow political junkies overwhelmed by what I was witnessing. All across the nation republicans and tea parties were winning. This was an obvious defeat for Obama and his agenda. I wasn't able to stick it out much past 11pm but went to bed feeling hopeful about our nations future.

I awoke today, groggy with a mild headache, regretting having some beers the night before. Once I got my head together I was eager to get the newspaper to scour through some official results of last nights election. The last time something like this happened I was 12 years old and more interested in Michael Jordan than Newt Gingrich and his crew.

I never understood the gravity of 1994 even after studying the Clinton's failed health care reform attempt as a sophomore in high school. Back then I was still formulating my philosophy and had little interest in the required reading of my government class. But something must have stuck with me because ever since then I have had some interest in politics. The election of 2000, the first time I could vote, I did a lot or research and reading and wound up siding with the libertarians. After witnessing what politics is truly about I became apathetic and didn't vote again until 2006 and then voting against someone.

It wasn't until 2007 that I truly got hopeful again. That is when a little known congressman from Texas took the nation by surprise with his record breaking internet fund raising and his limited government philosophy. I was energized and started volunteering by handing out pamphlets and becoming a delegate to the republican state convention. Although Ron Paul lost I stayed in the party practicing patience. The next few years it appeared that some of the people had woken up to the massive spending of both Bush and Obama. They were staging protests and rallies and were calling themselves the Tea Party. Rand Paul, Ron's son, became somewhat of an icon of that movement and I was also a buzz in rand fever.

With the republican wave pushed by the limited government tea party movement we can be hopeful that they will be more attentive to what Americans have been asking for since the early 1990's. Smaller government. I am also hopeful that the republican party can once again be opposed to nation building and interventionist foreign policy. After all, George W. Bush did win on that platform. Ron Paul will even be up for Chairman of the Subcommittee on Monetary Policy. And what about a Tea Party caucus in the senate? I am truly hopeful of the future. Ron Paul 2012!

D'oh