Americans want change! But will they get it?

American voters "spoke for change, and they spoke for a new direction," Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) observed at a Washington news conference the day after the midterm elections. Pelosi, who earned a 31 percent cumulative score in THE NEW AMERICAN'S "Conservative Index" for the 109th Congress, is expected to become the new Speaker of the House, replacing GOP Rep. Dennis Hastert.

The November 7 congressional elections were widely viewed as a referendum on President Bush's policies, particularly the war in Iraq and the president's insistence that we "stay the course" there. The American people do not want to stay the course, and they view the problem as extending beyond the president himself to the GOP congressmen who have had majority control of both houses of Congress in recent years. At least, that's how Americans voted on the November 7: their wrath against GOP lawmakers gave the Democrats majority control of both the House and Senate.

Now that the American people have voted the GOP rascals out of office, will they get a "new direction," and will they get the "new direction" they want? Campaign rhetoric aside, at the national level the Democratic Party, like the Republican Party, is beholden to the power elites. There was no real change in fundamental policy when the American people voted for the "Republican Revolution" of 1994. Will this year's "Democrat Revolution" prove as disappointing, if not more so?

Even though politicians should never be trusted to do what they say, irrespective of whether they are Republicans or Democrats, most of them will pay attention to their constituents rather than to the special interests--if enough of their constituents become informed and involved and keep the feet of their representatives to the fire. If that is done, Congress will improve.

But tremendous work will be required! Many Democrats, after all, support big-government programs such as socialized medicine. Many of them also support amnesty for illegal aliens. And though many Democrats have started opposing the Iraq war and have been opposing George W. Bush's consolidation of police-state powers under the executive branch, their defense of civil liberties could weaken considerably if a Democrat is elected president two years from now.