Stasis

I have been beyond the range of the Internet for several days, thus my silence. The nice thing is that, since I know that I am talking to no-one, or to no-one other than to myself, my silence just doesn't matter; although that silence may matter to me, since its presence is yet one more reaffirmation of my gradual slippage into oblivion, in the great scheme of things it matters not. But, now that I have emerged from Lopez to the WiFi zone, here are a few thoughts.

It should be obvious to anyone who pays any attention to anything that the legislature of the United States has evolved since 1994 into a form of government that has no purpose other than a game in which the out-of-power party keeps anything from happening so that they can blame the in-power party at the next election for getting nothing done. Neither party can or will support the best interests of the country because to do so might allow something positive to happen on the watch of the in-power party, thus making them look good and allowing for the possibility of them being re-confirmed in power at the next election. This situation closely resembles the state of affairs that developed in World War I after the initial thrusts and parries had stabilized into an impasse which lasted until the United States added fresh blood on the side of the French and British and tipped the balance in their favor. It would not appear that such a third party exists in United States national politics, so it would appear that the game of keeping the in-powers from accomplishing anything that will help the country is going to continue. Ultimately, it would seem probable that the game will be broken, but it will probably be broken by the breaking of the country.

The only exceptions to the don't-do-anything form of government that have appeared are things that either should not have happened at all, or should have happened differently: under the threat of a McCarthy-like reign of terror from former president Bush and the republicans the democrats all buckled and voted for the Iraq invasion. Driven by a form of mass hysteria caused by the fear of a looming depression Nancy Pelosi was able to force through a trillion dollar list of all the half baked ideas that had been on her spending list for a long time. Rather than trying to act as a productive and protective opposition and forcing deliberation that would create a plan to spend what was probably somewhere near the right amount of money in a manner that made any sense, the republicans just went along.

And the icing on the nightmare cake of misgovernment is the influence of lobbies. What little does happen is the result of that nasty expedient for re-election, the expedient that both the ins and the outs need equally: money from the lobbies.