Two Parties

McCain and his supporters are pushing a new argument to win votes. That is, the idea of a divided government.

If Obama is elected and the trend of change continues throughout the country Democrats will control both the White House and Congress. This situation is called unified government.

Conventional wisdom says that unified government will legislate from the platform of only one political party. Instead, with divided government, the President negotiates with his rivals in Congress on bills that might be passed, resulting in legislation that basically represents moderate viewpoints. There is 'a give and take' where most of the extreme parts of the bill are removed or adjusted.

Certainly, Democrats have some built up anger and frustration towards the current administration and the Republican Party. It is likely that their initial legislation might be very liberal and over compensate for the past 8 years. With this in mind, and from a moderate perspective, the fear of unified government is justified.

But, can unified government be good? On one hand, there is no excuse for a unified government not to pass legislation. So, government might actually get ‘stuff’ done. The opposing party will not agree with every law passed, but some action might be better than no action.

The other way unified government could be good is that there is a clear understanding of who is responsible if something goes wrong. During the next election it will be clear who to vote out if the country is going in the wrong direction. It will be very hard to deflect blame for misguided decisions. Congress will be accountable.

As I mentioned before, I believe that no matter who wins the election, the next President will have to stand up to extreme legislation and fight for moderate laws and regulations. From what I see, John McCain is better equipped to do this, because he has done it his whole career.

Obama has not been tested on this. He says he will reach across the aisle and work with Republicans in Congress. But I doubt that. If Democrats control Congress I can't imagine Obama making any effort to fulfill that campaign promise and include Republican ideals in the bills he signs into law.