A Return to Gridlock? Let's Hope So

[struggle4progress]

Kevin Tuma

The recent elections confirm the beginnings of what has been needed for quite some time…a smack-down of the political party currently in power.

If American voters can focus for one more year and get off their couches long enough to express their displeasure, the Republicans will face a fearful reckoning at the polls. This comeuppance is long overdue. The Republican Party has had over a decade of congressional leadership--and half a decade of supreme executive power--to demonstrate that it stands for fiscal responsibility, smaller, less intrusive government, and strict constructionism of the Constitution. Instead, we have seen runaway spending from a President who never vetoes bills, and a massive expansion of government waste and oppression.

The GOP has given us even more federal agencies, laws that trample the Bill of Rights, and pork by the ton. Hundreds of billions have been squandered on such rubbish as farm bills, highway bills, and corporate welfare for Big Oil. They’ve given blank checks to a war that consumes over $6 billion dollars a month in taxpayers’ money. A war that was started under questionable circumstances, supported by lies, and seems to have no exit strategy--despite the fact that the military despot the war originally sought to overthrow was captured, imprisoned, and is about to stand trial. Bungling of this war that never should have even started--and now lags on for no apparent reason--is primary among the reasons that Judgment Day for the Republicans may have begun. If the GOP Congress doesn’t bring the administration and the Pentagon to heel immediately, in 2007 there won’t be a GOP Congress. They will be given the Bum’s Rush, and the "Republican Revolution" will be over. <snip>

Eroding the King’s power base upsets the throne, thereby allowing more dissent. Gridlock slows down the machinery of government---which would be desirable even in an honest, constitutional system, responsibly governed by the Rule of Law. In a shameless mockery like our current system, it’s not only desirable, it’s imperative. Neither party can be trusted with the reins of power, so perhaps the logical position is to support anything that shortens the reins. Gridlock helps, and so does dissent..even hysterical, misguided dissent. What we cannot afford is any more consolidation of power at the top. We are far down the road from the halcyon days of our early Republic. <snip>

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/11/11/Tuma.htm

It must be a frighteningly psychotic experience to try to be a principled conservative nowadays ...