Minority Party- What about the little guy?

Even the word "minority", when pertaining to government control, brings up feelings of helplessness, domination, and little voice. But if we examine just a little further, we can understand that the minority party in a democracy plays a vital and important political role. The minority party can act as a watchdog for policy and behavior of the majority party. This title can help the minority party in future elections by pointing out the flaws and mistakes from the party in power. This leads to the second point, which is table setting for future majority control. History teaches a valuable lesson; by not repeating the failures of past administrations can further entrench approval among potential voters. The minority party can also survey what areas are weak among the majority party, i.e. issues, potential seats and use to agressively attack these points to help remove the party in power and secure the possession of majority control. My third point of the role of the minority party is the ability to comprimise and negotiate concerning policy creation. This benefits in two ways. 1. Legislators among the majority party who do not stricly vote along party lines can be ignored by the controling party,therefore paving the way for the majority to seek votes from the minority. In order for members of the minority to vote along w/ the majority, the negotiation can be begin. The minority members may not get full policy approval, but for the majority to gain some minority vote, tade offs need to occur and therefore, the minority is able to have some voice in the direction of the policy. 2. Future considerations- Minority members can cut a deal w/ majority members for current policy, but if and only if, the minorty members are able to stay in power. If this event occurs, minority members can "remind" majority legislators of where and how they scratched their backs, and the Potomic Two Step ensues. Lastly, a special benefit that occurs in the Senate, plays a huge role in policy configuration. Minority Senators have the power to filibuster any legislation that comes to the Senate floor, being able to argue whos better Fred Flintstone vs Homer Simpson for days on end. In todays Amercican Senate, the minority just has to threaten to filibuster in order to get some considerations from the new bill. The majority party has the power to block the act of filibusters but needs a rare 60% majority vote to do that.
All these points give some hope to Republicnas after the Nov. election, cause lets face it, McCain is in trouble and the majority will strengthen its numbers in Congress. The question remains, will Obama be able to reach out to minority Republicans to secure broad appeal? Or is "Change We Can Believe In" a topic for Robert Stack's Unsolved Mysteries? Stay tuned..

one note:
reason for no blog last week: Brewer Playoff Baseball...this happens once every 26 years, not every year like some heartless East Coast teams who believe in curses and putting old players heads in ice cubes. will this rant help my grade? j/k