The New Divide
Washington continues to be a city of divided government that has electorally at the ballot box re-captured the checks and balances so sorely lacking in America since 2000. The 2006 midterm elections elevated and reinforced the partisan confrontational gridlock, and warfare. The diversity of the democratic majority in the new Congress is representative of the new divide in American politics. The old school liberal leadership is reluctantly trying to embrace the moderate and conservative “Scoop” Jackson Democrats who are in many ways more aligned politically with the moderate wing of the Republican Party, while trying to minimize the inevitable clashes on foreign policy, especially towards China, and a Republican president and his staunch conservative party supporters who survived a near death experience.
The use of Congresses subpoena powers to investigate the president’s conduct of the war, Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy policy deliberations and White House links with Republican corruption scandals further widened the existing rapidly expanding fissure.
The lack of desire to compromise by Vietnam vintage politicians determined to investigate, indict, and impeach their fellow Vietnam era draft dodging architects of the war in Iraq ─ a war that lasted 44 months on election day 2006, the amount of time that elapsed between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day ─ and rapidly catching up to the length of the 10 year war in Vietnam, was a sequel to the Vietnam era Watergate hearings.
Congressman Henry Waxman, whose formidable combative Waxman-Berman political machine I have the memorable experience of handing its first electoral defeat in a Los Angeles City Council race in the early 70’s, lost no time as head of the House Government Reform Committee giving Bush’s team the real thumping they deserve. Impeachment investigations went into inquisition overdrive. Pay back time for the wasteful Republican led Clinton impeachment effort.
The political debates about increasing everything that is long overdue for an increase, starting with tax on oil and pharmaceutical company profits, minimum wage, Medicare benefits, immigration quotas, and simultaneously reducing the costs on fundamental human necessities such as education, health care, drugs for seniors and other entitlement programs, such as the mentally and physically impaired ─ and budget deficit ─ are a welcome respite from the dysfunctional divisive political rhetoric of denial in the interest of political self preservation and perpetuation of unnecessary wars.
The reality is that U.S. partisan, political posturing in preparation for the 2008 presidential election ─ by both parties and their presidential candidates ─ exposed the lack of new ideas or sweeping policy reforms so desperately needed for America to survive as a superpower.
The political debris left in the wake of the destructive political blue tidal wave that crashed on the shores of the Potomac in early 2007, is drowning America’s democratic form of government. A major political cleaning is needed and long overdue by We the Maids.
The use of Congresses subpoena powers to investigate the president’s conduct of the war, Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy policy deliberations and White House links with Republican corruption scandals further widened the existing rapidly expanding fissure.
The lack of desire to compromise by Vietnam vintage politicians determined to investigate, indict, and impeach their fellow Vietnam era draft dodging architects of the war in Iraq ─ a war that lasted 44 months on election day 2006, the amount of time that elapsed between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day ─ and rapidly catching up to the length of the 10 year war in Vietnam, was a sequel to the Vietnam era Watergate hearings.
Congressman Henry Waxman, whose formidable combative Waxman-Berman political machine I have the memorable experience of handing its first electoral defeat in a Los Angeles City Council race in the early 70’s, lost no time as head of the House Government Reform Committee giving Bush’s team the real thumping they deserve. Impeachment investigations went into inquisition overdrive. Pay back time for the wasteful Republican led Clinton impeachment effort.
The political debates about increasing everything that is long overdue for an increase, starting with tax on oil and pharmaceutical company profits, minimum wage, Medicare benefits, immigration quotas, and simultaneously reducing the costs on fundamental human necessities such as education, health care, drugs for seniors and other entitlement programs, such as the mentally and physically impaired ─ and budget deficit ─ are a welcome respite from the dysfunctional divisive political rhetoric of denial in the interest of political self preservation and perpetuation of unnecessary wars.
The reality is that U.S. partisan, political posturing in preparation for the 2008 presidential election ─ by both parties and their presidential candidates ─ exposed the lack of new ideas or sweeping policy reforms so desperately needed for America to survive as a superpower.
The political debris left in the wake of the destructive political blue tidal wave that crashed on the shores of the Potomac in early 2007, is drowning America’s democratic form of government. A major political cleaning is needed and long overdue by We the Maids.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 9:59 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe the problem is that Democracy no longer works in the US!!
I ran across an interesting blog the other day at "argusczall.name". The main entry is a book, entitled "How I would run the Country if I were Dictator" Eleven chapters identifying the major problems in the budget defecit, Congress, the trade defecit, the armed forces and security (homeland and vs Islamic fanatics), immigration, drugs, crime, schools, money and taxes, environment, business, and proposes solutions for all of them that the country can implement unilaterally without negotiating with any foreign power or potentate. The reason for the "Dictator" element is that nobody proposing this agenda could ever get elected; every last one of the solutions steps squarely on the tits of a sacred cow of one special-interest-
litmus-test group or another. There are lots of ideas here, probably giving equal-opportunity offense to right and left: some good, some bad, some just plain silly, but it's worth a look.
Check it out.
Right on John! Democracy is having difficulty functioning properly. I'm going through "How I would run the Country" and find myself agreeing on most points.
Thanks, Peter de Krassel
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