Their Opportunism, Our Opportunity

beneath the Radar

By Gary Younge

This article appeared in the December 11, 2006 edition of The Nation.

November 26, 2006

The Republicans had yet to concede Virginia and there were around a dozen House races still too close to call when New York magazine hit the stands the week of the midterm elections. It featured a picture of Hillary Clinton and the words: "And now the real race begins."

Elsewhere CNN had already designed a banner for the bottom of the screen that read "America Votes 2008." The Economist ran a cartoon of Clinton and John McCain on horseback with the headline: "And they're off! The real election campaign gets under way."

November's elections, which saw both houses of Congress switch sides, were, it appears, at best symbolic and at worst meaningless. For a substantial vote with real results we must wait two years--2008, it seems, is the new 2006.

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About Gary Younge

Gary Younge, the Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the New York correspondent for the Guardian and the author of No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey Through the Deep South (Mississippi) and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (New Press). He is also a contributor to The Notion. more...
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