In either case change is definitely on the horizon in the not too distant future.
The last message that I posted on the internet was “Roll Dems” in reference to the University of Alabama and their Crimson Tide supporters who are well aware of the phrase “Roll-tide” for their football team’s ability to roll-over their opponents. I was hoping for a tide that would completely cover the red-seabed of Republicans but I will have to be satisfied with a tide that covered and drowned at least some of them. I was really only disappointed in two of them surviving because they pose the biggest threat to our Democracy as one was so arrogant as to force members of the Legislature to sign a letter refusing to tell us what they did with OUR Money and the other actually authored the legislation that gave IPI all those “loop-holes and even control of OUR Money — B.J. Attao & A. Demapan. They only won due to their popularity and not their work FOR the People but it’s all spilled milk now and there is nothing that can be done unless they get caught-up in the RICO Investigation and the FBI will take care of them for the rest of us-folks-in-the-cheap-seats, I PRAY!
But strangely enough, the People of the CNMI actually created “a virtual equal balance” in the House of Representatives with Independents siding with both parties, a feat that is rarely seen in American Politics. But what this means is that EVERYTHING they do will require someone crossing the isle to support the other side that forces EVERYTHING to stand on its on MERITS and not Politics, which is great FOR the People. No longer can the Legislature ignore their fiduciary duties to place a real check on the Governor. No longer will our Government continue to show favoritism FOR IPI over their duties to the People. No longer will Federal Funds be manipulated without any real checks & balances on the use of these funds that used to go to ALL GOP Loyalists (People & Businesses). No longer can the Republicans play around with “teachers & retirees” like the Governor did and what A. Demapan just did for this election. No longer will Republican Politics prevail over “People-Politics” which is really the bottom line. Any member of the Legislature who is not working in the best interest of the People will surely mean death in the next election because EVERYONE is watching and even keeping score as there is just too much at stake (our economy and the quality of our social fabric).
Even though there wasn’t a completely Blue Wave there was the Blue Tide that was just enough to float and save our Democracy from being officially declared dead & buried in the mud of GOP partisanship politics and for that I am truly thankful of voters.
But this election also reminded me of a lesson in Political Science that actually took place on a field-trip from Georgetown University to George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s Homes when the question was asked about Washington’s arm chair that he sat in for nearly three months of the Federal Convention’s continuous sessions. James Madison reported Benjamin Franklin saying, “I have often looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. It was later determined right before his death Washington said that he was sure it was a rising sun on our new Democracy. I am hopeful that WE the People of the CNMI will be seeing a rising sun come January with a New Day & New Beginnings for our Commonwealth to be a better place to live and do business. To be continued: One People One Direction.
The writer is a retired teacher, former CNMI Board of Education Member, James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar) and a Fulbright-Hays Foreign Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
