Election night is over, thank heavens. There’s still some noise, mostly Trump trying to declare a fraudulent loss. Don’t worry it will fade. It’s looking like Biden is going to be our next president. What is more interesting to me right now is the congressional results. As some of you know, congress is one of our three branches of government and it’s very important.

The Senate will probably be dominated by the republicans in the 117th congress. The democrats are ahead in the race to dominate the House but it’s still too early to call. It is difficult for a president to attain the goals they announce in their campaigns without the cooperation of congress. Obama couldn’t fill all the appointments he was required to thanks to the right.

Congresspersons do not have term limits and many are career politicians. This is particularly true of senators. Seats on important committees are based on seniority so it makes no sense for states to impose term limits. Other states who don’t have restrictions would have the advantage. Term limits for congress would have to come from the federal government and any attempt would face legal challenges. States handle the elections of their senators and representatives.

Centrist democrats are pointing their fingers at their more liberal colleagues for losses in congress. “We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. . . . We lost good members because of that,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said (Washington Post). Damn right. People have been fed some misleading ideas (Case Study 21) painted in false idealism. The US and most of the citizens in it have studied enough history to reject Marxism. It was a bad idea in 1843 (Case Study 26) and it’s a worse idea now. Attempts to make it main stream have failed and will continue to do so. Unfortunately it hampers the Democratic party and the evolution of our society. If that’s what it takes to fend off Socialism; so be it.

To Abigail Spanberger and other Democrats I would add the issue of gun control. Socialism and gun control were both goals of the NAZI party. They equate with too much government control. Americans on the right and many on the left do not agree with disarming the citizenry. It’s time to drop the issue. The vast majority of voters are not members of either party. There are voters who would vote for a democratic president and then vote for a republican senator to balance influence because of this issue. The main reason most Americans do not support efforts at gun control is simple and mostly unaddressed; we don’t trust the government. We shouldn’t trust the government. We aren’t supposed to. Being suspicious of our leaders is very American. It’s what the original Bill of Rights is all about.