Dear Pitt News,

I am writing in response to Shane Levy’s column “Grand Old Party must… Dear Pitt News,

I am writing in response to Shane Levy’s column “Grand Old Party must embrace centrist viewpoints or die.” With the Republican Party no longer in the White House and majority of Congress, it’s so easy to point fingers exclusively in the GOP’s direction. But remember, it was only five years ago in the 2004 election that the Republicans won handily in the White House and Congress.

So what could have changed so dramatically in just five years to let the Democrats take over Washington? Well, it was nothing the Democratic Party really did better, so much as what the Republican Party did wrong. More specifically, George W. Bush did not govern as a true Republican president and left the Republican Party in shambles because of a failing economy and failing war.

But Bush is not the president anymore, and Americans will soon forget his missteps. When a single party has absolute rule, as the Democrats do now and as the Republicans did five years ago, the majority party will take almost all the blame when things go south, and the opposition party will start winning more elections. Eventually, the economy or something else has to go south in a major way. Rest assured, the Democrats will get the major part of the blame, fair or not. This is why government is highly cyclical.

As with almost any competition in life — especially sports and politics — the loser will often get all the blame, and the winner will get all of the accolades for doing everything right — even when the outcome was extremely close. So just give it a few years. The Republicans will be back in control of both the White House and Congress before you know it, and the Democrats will again be the “party of no” as they were under W.’s years.

Chad Kimmel

Graduate Student, Pitt School of Medicine