According to Fox News, 69% of Americans are "somewhat concerned" or "fairly concerned" that the new Democratic congress will prevent Bush from "doing what needs to be done" in Iraq.

There are few times that statistics make me blurt things out loud but this was one of them. "WHAT?!?" I still feel a bit disoriented, so help me out here. This is the same America that just voted those same Democrats into power, right? This is the same America that wept tears at the sight of the Twin Towers and silently cheered Bush as he announced the coming justice from atop the rubble, or am I wrong?

The only sense I can apply to this is to believe that a lot of Joe Americans voted in a way that mattered most to their own corner of the country. That isn't how things work, folks. When you vote for your state legislature or governor, the results stay (mostly) local. The Senate and House are national. They don't have anything to do with bringing business into your state or city, they don't decide your state minimum wage or whether you pass a stem cell research bill. Those Senators and Representatives decide where we, the United States, will be going as a nation.

The sheer irony here is that the Dems were trying to nationalize the election. Somehow they managed that while distracting from what people thought they would do in the most pressing matter of national policy. I would never have given them credit for such political finesse. Must have been luck.

A few disturbing thoughts have occured to me as well, and though I am a pessimist about human nature I don't want to believe them. One is that my fellow citizens have decided that "cut and run" is the best idea after all. Another is that an enormous number of conservative voters decided not to do their civic duty. Even my pessimism rejected those thoughts however.

I certainly don't have this situation thought out. I find it very confusing that voters would elect those they thought unlikely to fix the most important problem in our country. The other issues on the table right now are weighty, true, but I doubt the Dems would fare much better in a survey on their ability to solve those either. I'd appreciate thoughts and comments to help me wrap my brain around this.