Except for a few, politicians are more concerned with being re-elected than any issue on the table. So, the only way for the public to sway a politician (especially when the DNC or RNC wants otherwise) to vote the constituents' way is to make darned sure the politician is afraid of losing the next election. That's not as easy as it sounds, as politicians are very aware that the public long-term memory and short-term memory are one and the same.

Personally, I don't care if President Obama is re-elected in 2012 AS LONG AS either the Senate or the House has a majority of Republicans (or Independents who caucus with them) from 2010 onward. That way there really is a "check and balance" and the DNC cannot ramrod what's good for the DNC onto the public. I felt the same when Pres. Bush was in office, and was pleased when the Democrats won Congress. Whenever this check and balance isn't in place, the country gets overwhelmed with partisan laws aimed at rewarding special interest groups at the expense of everyone.

When a bill requires a "super-majority" to insure it will be law despite a Presidential veto, the odds that the bill will actually be in the nation's best interest (versus the DNC or RNC) is much higher. Additionally, when a President submits a budget to Congress in this situation, then odds that the budget really covers expenses and needs to run the Executive Branch, versus party-inspired fishing expeditions, is much greater. When neither the Congress or the Executive has to justify its actions to the other, (because who is there to challenge after the campaigning is over?) we always seem to go deeper in debt, taxes get raised, government gets bigger, and less gets done.

So, if the goal is "my party, first and foremost," then "my country" has been relegated to second-place. If there does become a Republican Congress in 2010 or 2012, AND a Republican President in 2012, we're no better off than now in the Obama Administration of today, or during much of the Bush Administration from 2001 to 2007. One Party Rules! The history of what happens then is written in the national debt and the IRS regulations.