In January 2006, the Palestinians handed power to the Hamas party in their first free election, to the surprise of everyone... including the Hamas party. Not so surprising, however, was the discovery that the terrorist group whose entire "platform" consisted of "kill the Jews and destroy Israel" had no idea how to deal with the economy, environment, health care or jobs in the Palestinian Authority... rather, the lack of those things. But the people voted for Hamas, and those who thought the Palestinians had already hit rock bottom were proven wrong.

The problem was that Hamas had no realistic plan for governing. All they had was virulent anger towards Israel and America, loud criticism of all their policies, and vague promises of wealth and security for all. The fact that the ruling Fatah party was rife with corruption pushed the election their way. After they assumed power, however, economic conditions and order in the Palestinian Authority only worsened. Their entrenched ideology, including the refusal to accept the existence of Israel and insistence that terrorism is "legitimate resistance," has only helped to deepen the misery and poverty of their people. Meanwhile, members of the Hamas and Fatah parties battle each other and the police forces openly in the Gaza streets. But that's what happens when voters elect a party that has no real platform, only animosity and dissent. The election of Hamas is a prime example of why rational people should never cast votes based only on emotion, but consider the issues and how the candidates plan to address them.

And yet, we Americans can't exactly point fingers at the Palestinians, not anymore. The 2006 election here in the heartland of democracy saw the empowerment of a party whose entire platform was based on virulent anger at the President, loud criticism of all his policies, and vague promises of wealth and security for all. The Democratic party never advanced an plan of their own, nor an agenda to improve the problems about which they complained so vociferously... only insisted that electing them would somehow make it all better. They managed to turn just enough voters against the Republican party to win a majority in both House and Senate. But having won power, they immediately descended into squabbling over what to do with it.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), newly-minted Speaker of the House, promptly used her influence to back John Murtha (D-PA) for Majority Leader... but he was soundly rejected by House Democrats. Next, she is expected to try to elevate Alcee Hastings (D-FL), an impeached former federal judge, to the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee over ranking Democrat Jane Harman (D-CA) for purely personal reasons.

Lacking both plans and realistic leadership, many Democrats have begun to fall back to the standard Liberal rhetoric, each pushing his or her pet issues and trying to buy as many votes for the future as possible. They've already begun to lay plans for raising taxes, pulling out of Iraq, raising the minimum wage, imposing controls and restrictions on businesses, repealing the PATRIOT Act, funding embryonic stem-cell research and fighting Nature by enacting legislation to combat climate change. Even socialised medicine (remember Hillarycare?) is back on the table. "Health care is coming back," Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) warned, adding, "It may be a bad dream for some." In fact, the only plan the Democrats seem to have is setting the clock back to what they see as a happier time, ignoring both the good and bad lessons we've learned in the last six years. Forget the war with terrorists and the surging economy, they want to party like it's 1999.

That's what happens when the electorate hands power to a party with no plan. Now we have to depend on Senate Republicans using the filibuster, and upon President Bush wielding that long-unused veto pen, to stop the most damaging legislation over the next two years. In the House, our only hope is the recently-elected "moderate" Democrats, since the House minority has no real power.

If not running gun battles, at least we can look forward to watching "Liberal" and "moderate" Democrats struggle to handle the power they fought so hard to take, fighting with each other and the Republicans at the same time, in factions and as individuals. Pass the popcorn!