This was quite the historic election our nation just went through.  The change that took place in the House of Representatives was the largest change of power in our country since 1932 during the Great Depression.  More than 60 seats in the house have changed from the Democrats to the Republicans.  They also added at least six seats in the Senate even though it was not enough to change the majority.  Down through our history a divided government has proven to be very effective more times than not.  For some reason when one party or the other has complete control it just hasn’t worked out as well as they hoped it would. 

 

The leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives is called the Speaker of the House.  The Speaker of the House is often called the 2nd most powerful man in America.  When Ronald Reagan was president, the Democrats had the majority in the House of Representatives and Tip O’Neil was the Speaker of the House.  Even though they were bitter rivals, together they put together a time of prosperity that lasted clear through the 1990’s.  Even though they disagreed on many issues, things weren’t quite as contentious then as they are now and there was a great deal of respect between those two great men.

 

It happened again in 1994 during Bill Clinton’s presidency.  Just like now, the Republicans took control of the house and that time Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House.  This time there was not much respect between these two men, as a matter of fact I think that deep down they hated each other.  But somehow the two leaders were able to get past their differences and work together (at least to an extent).  Once again after our economy that had gone through a bit of a slowdown in the late 80’s and early 90’s, got it back on track and flourished through the rest of that decade. 

 

Then came the 2000’s.  Our economy came crashing down right at the end of Clinton administration when the .com bubble burst and before we had a chance to recover from that, the terrorists attacked on 9/11/2001.  George W Bush had become president and even though our economy had really taken a hit, it eventually began to bounce back and actually reached an all time high in October of 2007.  But a year before that we had gone through another one of those changes of power.  The Democrats took control of congress in the midterm election of 2006.  Nancy Pelosi became the Speaker of the House and Harry Reid the President of Senate.  This time it did not work out as well as it did before.  The economy continued to grow for a few months but then our economy started to deteriorate and the stock market flat lined.  A few months later when the housing bubble burst, our economy crashed worse than it had at any time since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.  I’m not enough of an expert to understand who or what was to blame for what happened to us, but I do know this: there was no cooperation between the two sides and there was so much contention that they were unable work together to accomplish anything.  I do not agree at all with the policies that were put in place to help us recover from that economic disaster.  They started while President Bush was still in office and have continued and been taken to unprecedented levels under President Obama.  Now our country is so far deep in debt that no one has any idea how we will ever recover.  Our economy has started to come back somewhat but it is nowhere near the level it reached just a few years ago.  We still have a long, long way to go,

 

That brings us to our election that took place this week. With the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, John Boehner is our new Speaker of the House.  The Bible says we should pray for our leaders.  So I am praying that with God’s help, Mr. Boehner and President Obama along with all of our senators and congressmen can put aside their differences long enough to do what is right for our country.  The two men will argue and contend over every issue that our country faces.  From this point forward if anything good happens in our country, President Obama will get full credit and if anything bad happens, John Boehner will get all the blame.  That’s just how it works, but he says he has broad shoulders and will be able to deal with it.  

 

What I am also praying is that our media and so called entertainers will not be able use their usual tactics on Mr. Boehner and marginalize him through their ridicule.   They have been using that for a long time now on people they disagree with are able to turn them into such a national joke that nothing they say is ever taken seriously.  They tried it with Ronald Reagan (that never really worked for them).  But they have been very successful with Dan Quayle, Newt Gingrich, George W Bush, and Sarah Palin, just to name a few.

 

Pray for less contention and more cooperation so they can get the USA back on track to be influence for good in the world that it is supposed to be.

 

If you've taken the time to read this long post, then take the time to comment on it.  Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear your opinions.  Let me know when I'm right on things but for sure let me know when I'm off base too.  Remember when you post on a blog you don't have to use your real name.  Make some thing up, no one will ever know who you are and you can post whatever you want.  That is part of what gives blogs so much power, the anonymity gives people a lot of freedom.