A lot of people are reading things into this week’s elections. Some people claimed these elections are nothing but a national referendum on Bush and/or the Republicans. As such, I posted my “anticipated results” from the elections a few days ago. I’m still sticking with those “predictions” post-election. Now, here’s what happens when “national” expectations are thrust on individual elections:
Tuesday’s election results certainly sent a powerful message to President Bush about his policy on Iraq – but on the scientific front, there was also a strong message sent in support of embryonic stem cell research. And Gail Pressberg, one of the authors of an upcoming book on the stem cell debate, says that message just might reverberate in the Oval Office as well.
“One has to wonder what his attitude will be now,” Pressberg told me today.
Now, the caveat here is, correct me if I’m wrong, but not one of those candidates endorsed EMBRYONIC stem cell research. They endorsed “expanding” stem cell research. The catch here is that Bush is the ONLY president to ever EXPAND stem cell research. The ONLY one. So, I’m gonna tell you the headlines for next year now. The new Senate will pass legislation EXPANDING stem cell research, which Bush will sign because he’s ALWAYS supported stem cell research to some degree. They will not allow EMBRYONIC stem cell research as there’s too much political negativity attached to it. In simpler terms, nothing will have changed.
The media will have a field day with headlines citing how Bush has ditched his religious convictions, his ethics, and everything else and caved in to political pressure from the Democrats on this subject. All the while, nothing will have changed.
The reason nothing will have changed is threefold.
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The legislation to expand stem cell funding IS ALREADY IN PLACE. IF this truly was a deciding factor by voters in those races, they were duped. Which isn’t hard to do. Rather than using the internet to actually research topics, I have found most people advocating an issue choose to use it to reinforce their bias on the issue. Nothing will get done, and people will be happy with that because it’s the Democrats getting nothing done instead of the Republicans.
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My experience here is that the people advocating EMBRYONIC stem cell research were the same people advocating spit government ( as long it leans Democrat ). The problem we have now is that the government is not only split, it’s a balanced split. What you will see happening for the most part will be basically nothing getting done for two years as Bush knows he can veto anything he wants and there is absolutely nothing either chamber can do about it. Nothing. Expanding stem cell research is already on the books. EMBRYONIC research is not. EMBRYONIC research is what gets conservatives worked up and united. The Democrats’ hold on the Senate is dangerously tenuous. They lose one seat in ’08, it’s lost. The very last thing they are going to do is unite the neo-conservative base that basically didn’t show up at all last Tuesday. Proposing legislation that would do just that and have no chance of getting signed is not something I think Pelosi or the Senate leader are stupid enough to do. So, look for NOTHING TO HAPPEN while they try to take credit for legislation that’s already passed.
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And, all politics IS local. Most of the pro-stem cell candidates won by hairs. They’re not indiviudally going to intentionally unite the conservatives in Missouri or anywhere else. They didn’t support embryonic stem cell research, they supported what Bush has supported, just putting more money in it. They can get by with that, but if Pelosi puts embryonic stem cell research on the table, those hairs they won by are gone.
So, I stand by my original assumption, Michael J. Fox put the screws to stem cell research. How long is Fox going to let McCaskill off the hook when nothing gets done by the Democrats?
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