Mid Year Reflections

While the true "middle" of the year is more appropriately marked by the Summer Solstice, (particularly for you Wiccans) many of us tend to view this holiday weekend of the 4th of July as the midpoint of the calendar. Farmers traditionally judge the growth of corn by determining if it's "knee high by the fourth of July." Baseball fans never really start to worry about their teams chances until now because the season is roughly halfway through.

Me? I tend to look at the longer measures of time... specifically the Chinese calendar. Our local Chinese restaurant, where we order food on the many occasions when we're either too busy or lazy to cook for ourselves, is nice enough to send their regular customers a rolled up bamboo calendar every year. It not only marks the months and days, but it ticks off the years of the cyclical Oriental annual cycle, each one being represented by an animal.

For example, 2004 was the Year of the Monkey and 2005 is the Year of the Rooster. Upon reflection, this certainly seems apt. In 2004 we saw a tiny majority of voters make monkeys of the rest of us and, as a result, 2005 has certainly felt like there was a giant cock coming for our nation. But what of the future?

2006 - our next mid term election cycle stop - is the Year of the Dog. I think it's important to remember that old saw, "every dog has his day." After all of the monkeying around and "fowl" activity of the last two years (ok.... so sue me) it's nice to think that the progressive dogs may finally have their day. The GOP is currently acting as if the "mandate" they received in the last two elections is signaling the beginning of a new Thousand Year Reich. However, with the revelations of the Downing Street Memos and, more recently, the Rove - Plame connection, coupled with the Terri Schiavo antics of the Republicans, public approval polls are showing that support for both Bush and congressional Republicans is in the crapper. If Dear Misleader™ should nominate an anti-choice theocon for Sandra Day O'Connor's SCOTUS seat when the country is so solidly in favor of protecting a woman's constitutionally approved right to freedom of choice over her own body, remaining public support for GOP candidates and incumbents is likely to wane even further.

With a solid effort, as unlikely as it may have seemed only six months ago, both the House and the Senate could be taken back from the Hypnochrist Rovians and some measure of stability, sensibility and progressive values could be forced fed to our government for the rest of Dubya's lame duck days. Some are even (dare we hope?) whispering of impeachment proceedings should the Democrats take control of both sides of the legislative branch. If Bill Clinton could be impeached for lying about getting a hummer, lying about taking the country to war should at least be good for fifty lashes with a bamboo pole in Singapore Square.

Look to the future, however, Democrats. 2007 is the Year of the Pig and the next presidential election falls in the Year of the Rat. Learn a lesson from the disastrous hubris of your GOP colleagues and don't get greedy like pigs in 2007 if you manage to secure a win next year. Otherwise, in 2008 we may see the rat turn once again and President Jeb Bush will continue to drive the country into the ground.