In the previous post I wondered how it will be possible to govern this place with things like FauxNews taken seriously. That aspect is bad enough, and the prospect of GOP gains (any) this fall may seem to have serious outcomes like gridlock. That exaggerates a future that exists now. The House has passed a lot of bills and you may have noticed that only a few have made it through the Senate. What the House gets up to means next to nothing if it can't get past the Senate. It certainly is true that if the Senate balance shifts at all (it will) the room for compromise moves away from two or three GOPer Senators to enough that anything a Democrat can live with can't be done. (except maybe start a damn war) ((well, give the show to the wealthy and corporate))
Some of this is thanks to the Democrat's own inability to sell anything they do. Some of this is thanks to the theme of "having a Democratic majority" in Congress. This is true in the House but what the Senate's composition and rules mean is that no such thing ever actually existed. That means that bills got stupidly compromised to appeal to people who wouldn't vote for them if hell froze over and what the public got was a ration of shit involving the bills and the process; and Democrats got the blame.
The fact that the public is too stupid and self-involved to take time to understand what has been done and why it was done as it was really only means that we will get the government we collectively deserve. Yes, for the foreseeable future the government of this nation is going to really suck. Boys and girls, the House terms are only 2 years but lost Senate seats are worth six years and the existing GOP seats are pretty safe and a look at the replacement candidates ought to really scare any sane person.
The lack of posts on this blog reflects a growing feeling on my part that continued activism is meaningless in regard anything I'd want to accomplish. Not letting the GOP do what it wants for the next decade isn't much of a goal for me. Part of the problem is too many decades of me watching this shit and the give a damn button is about worn out. Oh, I'll vote against the GOP and in some cases, like Wyden and Merkley, vote for Democrats but I'm beginning to feel like "so what." As for posting anything on this blog, it's getting pretty doubtful and the couple readers will easily find something better to do with their time if this goes away. I feel pretty bad for some sizable chunks of our nation - that and a buck will get you a cup of coffee.
1 comment:
I don't know how old you are, Chuck, but I suspect we're contemporaries. I'm a Vietnam vet and just recently began receiving my SS checks. My wife and I are comfortable if not wealthy and our adult son is gainfully employed in a career whose future only requires flammable buildings and the occasional pyromaniac. I would suggest you spend a quiet evening re-acquainting yourself with the 'Know-Nothings' of the mid-nineteenth century. I think you'll find some rather compelling parallels with our present day tea partiers. The period during which they had some measurable influence really only lasted a decade or so. I somehow doubt the tea party will last as long. In the end, men of good will, will carry the day. I'm reminded of something Tony Judt said when explaining the underlying sense of his musings in The Memory Chalet, “It’s about not forgetting the past, about having the courage to look at the present and see its faults without walking away in disgust or disbelief. It’s about believing.” Tony Judt died from Lou Gehrig's disease about four months later. I stop by your blog every time you put up a new post. Hang in there.
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