I've nearly finished reading Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives by Robert Draper. For a political junkie such as myself it is a fascinating look at how the lower house of Congress actually works.
I found it to be very fairly balanced, praising several in both parties for earnestly trying to serve our country, but also revealing many in both parties for what they are: crooked power hungry scum bags looking out only for their own political careers. I mean to the point of being willing to throw the entire country under the bus if they have to to get themselves re-elected. Our current crop of freshmen representatives are a particularly uninformed group.
The bottom line is this: IMO, If EITHER party ever gains control of the House of Representatives AND the Senate AND the Presidency, WE'RE SCREWED! I'm convinced that a gridlocked Congress, bad as that might be, would serve us better than getting flattened by the runaway Special Interest Express of one-party rule. You can't imagine how dangerous these people are!
Our wise Founding Fathers gave us the concept of "checks and balances" for a reason. Whether between branches of government or houses of Congress, it's a good concept.
S
It does seem that gridlock works best. Then we just figure things out for ourselves. Which makes me wonder why we even need a government. It would be nice to live in a world where we could expect one party or the other to actually make it a better world instead of just giving away perks to their cronies and corporate masters.
ReplyDeleteUs (or US) voters are pretty smart, whenever one party gets control of both the house and the senate and the Presidency, the next election usually changes that.
ReplyDeletewell, we saw what happened the last time with the Shrub. this current crop of Republicans is even scarier because they are intent on legislating their view of morality. to hell with separation of church and state. but yeah, they're all in it for the wealth and power and if the country goes down the tubes, oh well, they won't be the one suffering.
ReplyDeleteI used to be of the opinion that gridlock was good because I didn't want Congress interfering with my life, but now I ache for our country and see it sliding from it's once prominent spot on the world stage. I pray for the type of compromises that can once again set us on a prosperous path.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Checks and balances are designed to create as much gridlock as possible without totally putting the country at a standstill. The intent of the founders was to make it very hard to pass laws, and to therefore have those that did pass be reflective of the sentiments of the country as a whole and not of any small group.
ReplyDeleteIn the current stage of absolute resistance to compromise, I don't think gridlock serves the country. I say Vote Democrat!
ReplyDeleteSul, Steve....exactly my point. As long as one party can rule they can cram anything they want down our throats. But if they have to negotiate/compromise with each other the extremists in each party will have to behave themselves.
ReplyDeleteEllen....that's the way it usualy works. The bad guys seem to get off Scott free leaving us to clean up the mess.
Joe...True, but a lot of shit can hit the fan before mid-term elections.
PT....I wish, but there's too much money and power at stake for everyone to behave honorably. That stuff is like a drug. It's evil.
S