1 Boring Old Man

So, where do we stand? The Democrats control the House of Representatives. There is a tenuous Democratic control of the Senate – tenuous because Joe LieberBOY is an Independent, very capable of changing Parties in a heartbeat. There’s a new Secretary of Defense who couldn’t possibly be as bad a Donald Rumsfeld. There seems to be solid Democratic leadership in the House [Nancy Pelosi and maybe John Murtha] and in the Senate [Harry Reid]. The U.N. Ambassador is still up in the air [John Bolton is up for consideration but hopefully "unconfirmable"].

It’s so much more than we had last week that it’s a bit hard to take in. But it’s not over by a long shot. The new Congress is virtual until January. Even at that, the Separation of Powers is such that the Congress is in an Advise and Consent role in matters of War. All the Congress can do when it comes into being is say "no" to Bush and pass needed legislation which may get veto’d. The real power comes with the restoration of Congressional Oversight, but that takes time – a lot of time.

The tragedy of all of this is that it is a virtual certainty that Bush and Cheney will continue to forge ahead with their agendae, and generally stand in the way of any real progress. That’s the most amazing part. They can only function divisely. We know that there’s going to be no concerted cooperative initiatives in our government for the next two years. All we can hope for is a prolonged stalemate. To me, the amazing thing is that the Bush/Cheney position is that they know what they’re doing, and that they are going to keep doing it in spite of a clear message from the electorate and obvious failure. They’re like a couple of children who are so caught up in their fight to be "right" that they’ve lost sight of what they’re even there to do. It seems like they are determined to be "right" and "win," though it’s hard to even recall what they’re trying to win. I suspect that it’s no deeper than proving that they "weren’t wrong," though most of us know they were. I would bet that a lot of the votes on their side were either "anti-liberal" votes, or Religious Right votes, or Conservative votes, rather than pro-Bush/Cheney votes.

They have created such a painfully divisive climate, even during Clinton’s Administration, that it’s hard to imagine that this is even a single country. To my way of thinking, it’s a false dichotomy with both sides seeing the other as trying to destroy the nation. I don’t question that America is in danger of being destroyed, but I don’t think it’s from either side. I think this Civil War itself is the destructive force, rather than one or the other camps. We worry about the Civil War in Iraq, but how about our own? And I place the great dividers in the seat of blame – Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Bolton, and some of the Neoconservatives at the various Think Tanks. I believe "our side" would accept, and maybe even welcome, traditional Conservatives. So I don’t see our problem as contrasting ideologies. I see it as the Collective Psyche of a few rigidly Narcissistic people who hold an enormous amount of power, even more than they’ve been given, and who are stubbornly destructive.

So, where do we stand? In a lot better stead than we did the week before last, but still in a state of "suspended animation" until these guys are history.