International Shia News Agency

PressTV/ Republicans poised to capture Senate in Tuesday votere

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- US President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party is struggling to hold its ground in Congress, with the Republican Party poised to take control of the Senate in Tuesday’s elections.

Latest polls suggest that Republicans not only will capture a narrow majority in the Senate, but there is also a possibility of a significant victory for the GOP in the House of Representatives, where they already hold a 233-199 majority over Democrats.

This would put Obama’s rivals in charge of both chambers of Congress during his last two crucial years in office, making life difficult for a president who is looking to establish his legacy with his second term entering a lame-duck phase.

Polls show most US voters feel their country is on the wrong track, emboldening Republican candidates.

“We are at a crossroads right now,” Republican Joni Ernst, a candidate for the Senate in Iowa, said Friday.

“Either we stay on the path that Washington has for us, or we take that right turn and start moving in the right direction,” he added.

Ernst and others of his ilk are being supported by Republican celebrities like Senator John McCain and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile, Democrats have brought in their political heavyweights to join the campaign for one of America’s tightest races for the Senate, notably former president Bill Clinton, potential White House contender Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama.

But the momentum is shifting away from Democrats, with most forecasts suggesting that political ground is swelling in favor of Republicans.

“Within the last week to 10 days, we started to pick up some of the thunderstorms developing,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres said this week. “We’re starting to see the hints now of a building Republican wave.”

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. Also at stake are 38 state and territorial governorships, 46 state legislatures, and numerous state and local races.

With his approval rating in the low 40s, Obama has largely avoided the campaign trail. Political analysts say Obama is probably more unpopular than Harry S. Truman was at the same stage in his presidency.

But Obama scheduled at least three campaign appearances for this weekend, including a visit late on Saturday to Detroit, Michigan.

“When you step into that voting booth, you are making a choice not just about candidates or parties. You’re making a choice about two different visions of what America is about,” Obama told the crowd.

The president also warned of low Democratic turnout during the midterms, which could benefit Republican candidates.

“This election is too important to stay home. Don’t let somebody else choose your future for you,” the president said. “When we vote, we win.”

According to reports, both parties have thrown more than $4 billion at the months-long campaign.

Political commentators say that the US political system is designed to prevent any substantial change, and that the US democracy is dominated by dollar.

In an interview with Press TV last month, Rodney Martin, chairman of the American Nationalist Association, said that “the Republican Party is probably going to win [the] control of the US Senate. They may increase their number of seats in the House…by one or two. But they are going to win by default because the US political system is designed to prevent any substantial change.”

“If there was a real democracy and real choices in the American system, there would be few more parties and the Democrats and the Republicans both would be out of office and be in minority status,” he added.

He went on to say that “people who are disgruntled and upset with the way things are have no choice but to vote for the lesser of two evils, or to cast their vote with the party that is running against the party in power.”

And American antiwar activist Brian Becker told Press TV last week that the US lacks the essential features of a real democracy.

“To run for even small offices takes millions or tens of millions of dollars. So, it’s really a kind of democracy when they come to the voting booths and polling places, a democracy that can be characterized as dollar [democracy], a democracy that’s dominated by money,” Becker said.

 

 

Source:PressTV

www.shafaqna.com

 

Leave a Comment