Votes Matter

I'm not a political analyst and can barely follow political analysts when they speak. What I can say without equivocation is that your vote matters. In a democratic republic like ours, it is both our right and our responsibility to show up at the polls and make our voices heard.

Many people feel that mid-term elections aren't as important as presidential elections. Certainly more people turn out for presidential elections. But remember that the President doesn't make law. Congress does. In our system of checks and balances, Congress controls the purse-strings of government. The President can send troops anywhere, as Commander-in-Chief, but Congress declares war. According to 270towin.com, "The U.S. Senate has 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats (including two independents). There are 35 seats up in 2018 - including special elections in Minnesota and Mississippi - of which 26 are held by Democrats. That party will need to gain 2 seats to take control." This election will decide who controls the country for the next few years.

That's all I can say about that, but here's a look at another 5 important mid-term elections in US history.

1. James Buchanan's mid-term 1858: Buchanan, the only Pennsylvanian to hold the presidency, was a Democrat. Most people don't realize that due to economics, Pennsylvania was pro-South (not pro-slavery) prior to the Civil War. What is surprising is that Buchanan supported a pro-slavery constitution for the new state of Kansas. In response to that, the newly formed Republican party won enough seats in Congress in 1858 to gain control. Southern states threatened to secede if a Republican ever became president, and of course that's exactly what happened in 1860.

2. Ulysses S. Grant's mid-term 1874: Republican Grant served two terms, and the mid-term of his second term followed a financial panic and nearly ten years of Reconstruction. Some ruling Republicans wanted to go easy on their southern brothers, but Radical Republicans ran Congress, and I think it's safe to say Reconstruction was hard on the South. During the 1874 mid-term election, Republicans lost a whopping 96 seats in the house, losing control for the first time since 1858. This became important two years later. When electoral votes were disputed during the 1876 election, the House Democrats could force a compromise: Rutherford B. Hayes took the White House but soldiers have to leave the South. That ended Reconstruction.

3. Grover Cleveland's mid-term 1894: Cleveland is the first Democrat to be elected President since Buchanan and is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. A severe economic recession, railroad strike, and unemployment so severe that thousands of unemployed marched on Washington impinged on his second term. The Democrats lost 116 seats in the House and 5 in the Senate -- the biggest wipeout on record. The Democratic Party lost influence everywhere but the Deep South; this paves the way for Republicans William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt to be elected president, and it modernizes the presidency.

4. Harry S. Truman's mid-term 1946: Democrat Truman gained the presidency upon Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945, only weeks after being inaugurated for the fourth time. After three full terms of the dynamic FDR, Truman gained a reputation as a weak president. He inherited the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, and a falling economy. Republicans gained the House and the Senate in 1946. In opposition to Truman's agenda, they effectively blocked everything. This policy backfired; Truman ran for another term on the campaign against a "do-nothing Congress." He won another term in 1948.

5. Bill Clinton's mid-term 1994: Democrat Bill Clinton failed to appoint a new attorney general, failed to reform healthcare, and failed to lift the ban on gays and lesbians in the military by the mid-terms of his first term in office, and this led to Republicans taking the House and Senate. Analysts notice an increase in partisanship and advise him to move closer to center; he does and wins re-election. By the mid-terms of his second term, he has been impeached by the House, but he is acquitted by the Senate.

Bonus: Only twice in US history has the party of the sitting president maintained their control in Congress; only twice control did not change. The second of these examples was in George W. Bush's mid-term in 2002. America had suffered the worst terrorist attack in our history, and Bush's policies gained the Republicans six more seats in the House and two in the Senate. This meant the Senate was split 50-50 and gave Vice-President Dick Cheney the tie-breaking vote in any Senate decision. It also meant Bush had a "popular mandate" to pursue his policies. The only other example of this was FDR in 1934.

I hope you have been encouraged that your vote can make a difference. Tomorrow is the election. Don't forget to vote!