"The 2006 midterm elections and their resounding call for change were set in motion by that ill wind, Katrina, in August 2005.

When the levies broke in Louisiana, they did more than flood the Big Easy. The sight of people losing everything and the world losing a great city had the effect of a bucket of cold water across the face of America.

Dormant and first-time voters awoke thinking the war in Iraq was a mess that was diverting people and money from the home front. A critical mass of people started asking who lost the war, who lost New Orleans and who lost that huge budget surplus?

More and more Americans blamed President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress for making the rich richer and the poor poorer, and moving jobs away from people in the middle.

Some people snapped to the racial, social and class issues revealed on network and cable television, and started talking about them in terms of political action.

Others tried to shut down such talk with the ever-popular refrain, ''Look, you can't blame that on the president.'' A lot of people must have answered, ''Why not,'' because Bush's favorable ratings dropped precipitously.

Members of the president's party panicked and started shooting themselves in the foot (except for you-know-who, who shot the nearest trial lawyer in the face).

Potty-mouthed and sticky-fingered politicians - and one with a predilection for teenaged boys - couldn't resist being themselves in public and getting on the front page. Few officeholders were overly confident about their chances of being re-elected."

Get the Story:
Suzan Shown Harjo: Post-election: People talking and 'macaca' walking (Indian Country Today 11/17)

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