“Just want to make sure Ewe understand what happened yesterday”.

As much I have not missed June or her other 5 personas on this site, she, he or whatever name it used today does bring up an interesting topic; what did happen yesterday?

I have heard a few theories today. Everything from,”Middle America threw a tantrum” a replay of the statements made by many mainstream news casters after the ’94 Republican Revolution to, “This proves Bush’s policies are not liked by most of America”. I can’t agree with either of those or any of those in between.

Yesterday’s election was a referendum but not a referendum against Bush’s policies or one of support for the Democrats purposed policies. It was a referendum on the Republican Party by Republicans.

Now before you flip your lids on this idea hear me out. I heard today that 40% of registered voters voted in yesterday’s election. This is a point higher than in the last midterm election which was 39%.  If the Republicans ran that election to the point of bringing out 39% of the registered voters then it figures that they did not show up in the same numbers as last time or the election would have been 44 or 45% of the registered voters.

Why would this be the case? Well for one thing the there is the Republican’s uncanny ability to spend. I grew up a Republican and as I remember from the Kool-aide indoctrination of my youth we were the party of among other things, less spending and smaller government. If I were new to the party I would have to believe that Republicans hold as a major platform piece a desire to spend as much as possible as fast as possible.

Then there is the idea of America being for Americans. Illegal immigration has been a major problem since Kennedy introduced the ’60 something Immigration Bill and that fix did nothing to help. Now, with 12 years under our collective Republican belts in partial or total control of our government we have accomplished nothing when it comes to immigration save for a fence we approved just a week or two ago. We have made little attempt to treat this as a real issue with voters until we are right up against an election deadline and it is quite frankly, pathetic.

I do think that Iraq was an issue but not to the degree that many on the left would like to profess. The rank and file of the Republican Party, I believe (being a member in good standing) is far more disappointed with the current outcome in Iraq than the debate about its legality or the ongoing liberal assertions that it was based on a lie. We rightly expected it to be over by now with some semblance of victory even in the event that we were required to maintain some kind of permanent base as we have in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

(SIDEBAR: I have read nothing here about the release of papers confirming that Saddam’s regime was only 12 month away from having a nuclear weapon which I believe would have fallen under the definition of a WMD.)

Then there are the issues of abortion, Social Security, Welfare and Gay Marriage, all or which we either did not address or when we did we went about it with lack luster performance. In addition, there is the economy, which I have heard many a liberal talk show host declare as sagging but in all actuality is doing quite good for the average man and woman out there in America; and what did Bush and company do to emphasize this growth and prosperity, next to nothing. Sure Bush mentioned it in the occasional stump speech, but overall, we lacked the ability to gain from one area which has traditionally been a thing to tout in past elections regardless of which party was taking credit for it.

All these things were as I remember a serious part of being a Reagan Republican. A strong emphasis on personal responsibility which we did exercise by policing our own, taking seriously our own house rule requiring those under indictment to step down upon the filing. But instead of that being a signal of self determination it became the calling card of the Republican Party, as scandal after scandal caused our representatives to appear to be rats getting off the Titanic as she sank.

What it boils down to is this; Republicans threw a tantrum yesterday and we did so for one reason, to regain control of our Party. The average GOP member understands what the party stands for, but the average elected GOP official seem a little fuzzy on it.

As we look to the next 24 months (and this is directed at those Republicans out there who really want to fix this party once and for all) we need to take a long look at our elected officials who serve with an “R” next to their name. We need to learn to vet our people, vet our policies and vet ourselves.

Republicans have a fundamental problem with understanding how to lead when in the majority. We (and now I mean you elected officials) seem to lose interest in the idea of being in charge. We were a much stronger party when we in the minority. It turned us into innovators like with Newt’s Contract with America, instead we get there and spend the first four years doing an “ok” job, passing or bringing to the floor 9 or the 10 things we said we would in the first 100 days, then literally losing focus slowly over the next 11 years until finally we arrived at this point in time with less than admirable leadership and questionable ethics. Perception is law.

Bush himself didn’t do us any favors as he has approved every out of this world spending bill placed before him except for the stem cell bill, adding to Medicare the one thing Democrats have in the past not even brought to the table because of Republican opposition due to the shear cost of the program, and his lack of directness when dealing with Katrina during the aftermath of the storms. Forget that the state, county and city knew it was coming, that they had squandered the money for levies on low income and now waterfront housing for the poor, perception is law.

June wanted me to be sure I understood what happened yesterday and I certainly do understand. Democrats took the House of Representatives and brought the Senate to a draw save Cheney’s tie breaking vote. But more importantly, Republicans sent to our President and our Party an all important message; stop acting like the other side of the aisle or you can go home to whatever place you came from.

But what would I know; I’m just an Average American.