Change and democracy in all around we see

The nation liked President Obama’s pitch for “change” two years ago.

And that’s what it got — a new president and bolstered Democratic majorities made apparently insuperable on Capitol Hill, which affected the way the party governed and brought a torrent of big legislation.

{mosads}Now, it seems, the nation will opt again for change, probably for a new majority in the House and if not a new majority in the Senate then a Democratic margin that looks anything but insuperable.

After this, a third wave election in a row, how long will it be before anyone again talks about an unthreatened majority? This will change the way pols govern. In a democracy, the idea that no one is safe in politics is a good one.

What else looks likely to change?

There will probably be a new Speaker of the House. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the first woman to hold the gavel, seems poised to make her exit. She has boldly predicted a Democratic win today, but is one of very few people who think that way or, perhaps more precisely, are prepared to say such a thing even if they don’t really believe it.

So an historic political leader, described by this newspaper, among other opinion leaders, as the most powerful Speaker in a generation, will probably be gone. That is huge. Think how different the House will look.

There is more. The president, governing no longer with the backing of congressional majorities from his own party, will need a new modus operandi, as he is already acknowledging.

This may rekindle his popularity. Like President Clinton after his party’s drubbing in 1994, Obama will probably be able to run against Congress, or at least against part of it, and plausibly share blame with Republicans if things don’t get better.

Change also looms not just in the way the president will be obliged to govern and in control of the Congress, but also in the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill.

It is widely expected that if the Democrats lose the House, Pelosi will stand down to be replaced by her deputy, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may just retain his seat and with it the leadership of his caucus. But he is in the fight of his political life, and many pundits expect him to lose his reelection bid. Senate Democrats would then find themselves commanded either by their current chief whip, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), or, more likely, by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who would be the first Jewish majority leader.

Even when the mood was evidently turning against Republicans in 2005 and 2006, it seemed unlikely to many observers that the Republicans’ double-digit House majority would disappear like a snowball on a griddle. Then came the first Democratic wave, and then a second. The “permanent” GOP majority was bundled unceremoniously out of power.

Now the electorate seems to be doing the same thing again, but in reverse; another majority is being vaporized.