Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent, I hope you were able to take the time to vote yesterday. I'm registered to mail my vote so I don't usually have to brave the polls on election day which is great since I was away from home in Dallas yesterday.
As soon as I got into the hotel room I turned on one of the news stations and sat back and reveled in the sport that is election day. It's almost like watching a football game, the score is constantly changing and the results can be very exciting in the close races.
I'm not sure if you tuned in to see what happened last night, or if you've even heard this morning, but the Republicans made history gaining a record amount of seats in the House; 60 so far with a projected 65 total. This has happened a couple times before but not in over 70 years with such a large gain. Even in the Senate the Democrats held on to their majority but barely; losing a few seats they didn't expect to.
So, here's what this election says to me about the state of our country right now. Knowing that President Obama has a 49% disapproval rating, Congress has a 74% disapproval rating and almost 64% of people think our country is headed in the wrong direction; the mid-term election results obviously show that people were unhappy with our previous representation. Many analysts say the Republicans won many votes from people who were purely unhappy with President Obama and his policies and their vote for a Republican was simply a vote against the President. People want things to change.
Here is my hope, regardless of their party affiliations I hope that our new House and Senate will take the time to truly listen to their constituents and put into place the promises that they made on the campaign trail. We have a few Tea Party candidates that made it in as well and I wonder if they will try to shake things up like they stated on the campaign trail. Either way I'm excited to see what is about to happen with the many changes that occured last night in Washington.
I've tried to keep my personal political views out of this post because I really only want to say that I'm hopeful that the state of our country will improve. I think economically and socially many Americans are experiencing the worst of the worst and I am hopeful that we can turn things around regardless of the right, left or in the middle.
As Rand Paul said in his acceptance speech, "We've come to take our government back." I hope they mean it and change happens.
Until next time.
Nicole
