U.S. Government: Out of Order

The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for forty years—from 1954 to 1994. During those years, we had four Democratic presidents. Though my political memory only goes as far back as, say, the seventies, I don’t recall the Democrats ever wreaking the political havoc on our nation, or on the world, that the current GOP monopoly has accomplished.

I may be wrong. I know I pay a lot more attention to things political now than at any other time in my life. But I wonder, was my lifelong (up til now) non-politicalism a personal failure on my part? Or has the Bush Administration done such an appalling job that even pond scum writhes from the disturbance in the force?

I heard a commentator on Air America Radio today—I think it was Thom Hartmann subbing for Randi Rhodes—say something to the effect that this is what happens when you put people who hate government in charge of government. They accidentally on purpose destroy it. Think about it. When was the last time our government…governed?

Since the moment they took control of Congress in 1994, the GOP has been all about power. About how to use the power of their majority to increase and perpetuate that power. The first thing they did with that power was to attempt to circumvent the will of the voters by hounding the duly elected Democratic president very nearly out of the White House--even after the people elected him to another term despite the aspersions cast upon him by the Congressional majority. The Republicans’ first priority was to make it plain that the people’s will was sacrosanct—as long as it coincided with the needs, desires, and agenda of the Republican Party. They've developed the strategy of hammering unceasingly at the opposition. Not just before an election, but after, if the result is not to their liking. 24/7/365—until they get the result they want. What the people want is of very little consequence. What the people need is of no interest at all.

Congress has become merely a stage for the GOP; the stage from which they launch their constant and continuing political power plays. Every bill that is brought to a vote, every debate that takes place on the floor, every piece of legislation that arrives beneath the president’s pen is weighed purely on the basis of its political expediency for the majority party. Will it enhance the bottom line of their corporate sponsors, thereby fattening their own war chest and perpetuating their strangle-hold on the nation and the world? Will it distill complicated issues to the black/white, good/evil stratification that their base understands? Will it bring them more power? These are the all-important considerations of the Republican Party.

Our nation is nearly bankrupt, our people cannot afford housing or health care, global climate change is ravaging our coastal regions...and our Congress is voting on a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag-burning. Our public schools are deteriorating at an alarming rate, our national minimum wage is a joke, oil companies are banking record profits on soaring gasoline prices…and our Congress votes on a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. Kim Jong Il is foaming at the mouth and waving a nuke above his head, genocide rages on a quarter of the African continent, Osama bin Laden sends out videotapes every couple of months just for the “neener-neener” value…and our Congress votes on two separate calls for troop withdrawal from Iraq only to draw a line in the sand between the courageous “stay-the-coursers” and the yellow-bellied “cut-and-runners.”

I heard recently that Somalia bears the distinction of being the only country on the face of the earth without a functioning government. I beg to differ.

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