Thursday, January 26, 2006

It's All About the Corruption and Ineptitude

A lot of people are going to have a lot to say about the victory of Hamas over the Fatah party in the Palestinian elections. And I’m sure I’ll weigh in at one point or another, but right now I just want to note a trend.

By all accounts Hamas won not because of an ideological shift but because the Fatah party was corrupt and ineffectual.

That’s interesting, because the Conservatives in Canada just won the Canadian election because the ruling party was corrupt and ineffectual.

And, just last fall, the Christian Democrats won the German elections because the ruling Social Democrats were considered corrupt and ineffectual.

I think there’s a pattern here. In all three cases, ideological shifts played almost no part in the change of governments. The voters cast their ballots for the opposition because they were tired of corruption and ineptitude.

There is a lesson here for Democrats. A big, fat lesson just staring them in the face. The Republicans are brimming with corruption and have become increasingly ineffectual at managing our country. That should be the focus of the 2006 election. Forget the ideology and the pandering and tell us how you’re going to better manage this great nation.

I know it’s not always wise to draw lessons from foreign countries, but I’m pretty sure it’s plain human nature to want to toss out bad governments. Democrats have their in, but can they seize it?

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