...the system yet works.

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that the American system of government is the worst system around, except for all of the other ones out there.

Last week, voters in America turned up at the polls and turned out the majority party from the legislature, just as they did twelve years ago. Some good people who were working hard for their constituents found themselves without a seat when the music stopped playing, as happens every year at election time, but the national trend toward cleaning political house this year was both necessary and, on balance, good for us all.

As I've commented elsewhere, I'm very much a fan of the system of checks and balances built into our government. Last week, some checking and balancing was brought into play. Good for the Democrats. And good for the Republicans. Good for America.

I am under no illusion that the Democrats will prove any more far-sighted, beneficent, or prudent this time around than they did during their last legislative majority. But so what? It seems to me that both of the major parties in America have done their best work when they have had to negotiate the checks and balances posed by a healthy and well-matched adversary -- both within the legislature and in the other branches of government. Their victory reminds the Democrats that they are not the marginalized victims they've been despairing themselves of late to be; and their public spanking at the polls, I hope, will take the arrogant edge off the neo-con tail that has been wagging the Republican elephant these past several years.

On Election Eve this year, the future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, "The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history."

Good words. I like them. They remind me of what the Bush administration promised to do when they aimed to take the White House. Quoth Dick Cheney in August of 2000: "On the first hour of the first day, we will restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office."

We all know where that led, and we all know that Pelosi has already endorsed a fellow for House Majority Leader who has a cloud hanging over his own reputation for ethics (Rep. Murtha, who has a decades-long trail of dubious ethics when it comes to awarding military contracts. Quoth the Associate Press: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group, accused Pelosi of compromising her ethical standards by endorsing Murtha.")

So yes, I suspect it's politics as usual. And please do not misunderstand me: I abhor unethical behavior. But if the Democrats fail to live up to their lofty rhetoric on this occasion, as they and the Republicans have done so often in the past, we are at least left with this consolation:

Though imperfect, the system still works. Our nation may not be living up to its best potential, but we're still trying. We're still striving to move forward, to get closer to our ideal. The fact that our nation's checks and balances keep working bodes well for us all.