Change.

It’s a word  Americans have heard said more times by Illinois Senator and now President-elect Barack Obama than we can count.

And change is something Americans are certainly going to get as a result of Tuesday’s final election numbers.

The Democrats will hold control of at least 56 of the possible 100 seats in the Senate and 258 of the possible 435 in the House of Representatives.

And of course, the most coveted prize of all, the Oval Office, goes to the Democratic Party.

Given the results, the Republican brand has proven to be broken and widely seen as irrelevant by some due to the mostly failed policies of outgoing President George W. Bush.

It failed on multiple fronts.

The party campaigned on family and moral values but found itself involved in sexual scandal, directly contradicting its campaign platform.

The party used brutal campaigning tactics, choosing to accuse their opponents of being un-American and Godless instead of focusing on reforming the policies that had driven their party into the ground.

It’s a party that said government should stay out of our personal lives, but enacted legislation allowing members of that government to begin wiretapping our personal phone calls.

On the spending front, they butchered the federal budget with mostly Bush-driven fiscal policies of spending more, but taxing less.

Republicans regulated too little, allowing Wall Street to run free.

The housing and credit markets have stalled as well because of a lack of regulation, allowing predatory lenders to give out mortgages they knew buyers could not afford.

These things happened because Republicans had total control.

The party was left unchecked; allowed to enact whatever policies it wanted until after the 2006 election year.

Tuesday's results have placed us in a familiar position once again.

One party has total, almost unrivaled, control.

My friends, change is coming. But do not believe for one second it is going to be easy.

Do not believe the change that has been promised will be fully delivered to you.

Our problems are widespread and the responsibility to solve those problems now lies solely with the Democratic Party.

And just as the Republicans were, the Democrats will be held to a higher standard.

They have the power to enact whatever policies they want. 

But since gaining control of the Senate and House in 2006, they have failed to do so.

They promised to end a war in Iraq, yet continued to fund it without a requirement for withdrawal by a certain date.

The Democrats have also failed to stop the downward economic spiral of the past year.

We cannot afford for the Democratic Party to fail because there is no one else to turn to.

Should they fail, they will ultimately be held responsible.

Have hope, America, in a better future.

The slate is wiped clean  and a new chapter in American history is about to be written.

Let us just hope this chapter is better than the last, because we can’t afford anything otherwise.

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