Editorials

Time for cheers — and resolve

Nov 16, 2006 3:36 PM

The temptation is to give a rousing cheer over last week’s election results that may put a brake on the imperial presidency of George W. Bush. By winning both the House and the Senate, the Democrats (including one Democratic Socialist, one Independent and many conservative Democrats) may be able to help disentangle us from the quagmire in Iraq and refocus the government to deal with the priorities of working people, the elderly, the poor and schoolchildren, including some common sense reforms to No Child Left Behind.

Perhaps now the Congress can stop the president’s attempts to undermine Social Security, and will work to fix Medicare and NCLB, will raise the minimum wage, will increase funding for education, will stop tax cuts for the wealthy that have made the national deficit soar — and do all the other things necessary to improve the quality of life for working Americans rather that the administration’s pals.

It was good that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, quickly told the president they want to work together to find common ground — before he could try to mischaracterize the Democrats’ positions.

On the local level, there was also almost entirely good news: UFT-endorsed candidates swept the statewide races, took 13 of 14 congressional races and 87 of 88 state legislative races. A new governor, who has repeatedly vowed to end the CFE lawsuit and who is a friend of public education’ is certainly a happy prospect.

So, for a brief moment, it’s OK to give in to that temptation and cheer.

But the promise of a brighter future is only a promise. Our work is not done. Political reality has a way of dimming the brightest prospects. As Randi Weingarten said at the Delegate Assembly last week, “Maybe this is a new day … maybe not. We’ve got to get these folks to keep to their promises.”

So, let’s take the moment to cheer and to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done — and then get ready to keep up our advocacy to turn promise into reality.