Divided we stand…stock still

There are Serious People in Washington seriously looking forward to the Republicans taking control of Congress in the fall because they fully expect that the Republicans will not be able to do anything except make sure that President Obama can’t do anything.

These people, some of whom I suspect are Democratic Senators themselves (Did I say Max Baucus?)---think divided governments make the best governments, one side cancelling the other out, with nothing significant being accomplished by either side, as long as the real power remains in the hands of those who serve the interests of the corporate elite.

The prospect of Senators Angle, Paul, and Buck doesn’t frighten them.  If anything, it amuses them.  Nutcases make great news copy and titillating gossip.  The Serious People are counting on the cynics and corporate stooges who manage the elite’s business in the Senate to keep the nuts in line.  Look at the House.  How much trouble does Michelle Bachmann really cause?

Their only disappointment with Angle, Paul, and Buck---and you can throw in Senators Rubio and Toomey---is that none of them look as good as Bachmann in a skirt.

The Serious People know that a Republican Congress even if well stocked with Right Wing nutcases will accomplish next to nothing over the next two years but neither will President Obama.  Which is fine.  The corporate elites who run the country will get done what they want to get done.

The Bush Tax Cuts will be made permanent.

Social Security will be “saved” in some way that makes sure that no rich people’s taxes are raised and, with a little luck, actually cuts the amount of money businesses have to kick in and even makes some rich people richer.

But it won’t be called “privatization.”

Restraints on corporations will be loosened again.

Obama will have to appoint more corporate friendly judges.

Our giant imperial military will continue to keep the world safe for international corporate business interests.

In short, nothing is going to change.  It will be business as usual and things will go on the way they’ve gone on for the last 30 odd years.

The danger a Democratic Congress and a Democratic Senate posed to the corporate elite has always been potential not imminent.

There was always the chance that Nancy Pelosi might get real control of her caucus and Harry Reid might grow a spine.

There was always the chance that the liberals in the Senate might rebel and change the rules so that the majority actually ran the show and Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, Max Baucus, Ben Nelson, and Blanche Lincoln were reduced to the irrelevancies they deserve to be.

It’s amazing, isn’t it, that the Democratic Party, which mainly represents the urban centers on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts has been at the mercy of Senators from Montana and Nebraska.

You could take the entire population of Montana and combine it with the population of Nebraska and bus them all to Manhattan and they’d get lost in the crowd.

There was always a chance that the people of New York might notice this unfairness and start demanding that their Senators do something about it, like having one of them challenge Harry Reid for Majority Leader.

Fortunately, it’s looking as though the people of Pennsylvania have decided that instead of having their interests in the hands of Senators from Montana and Nebraska they want them placed in the hands of Senators from Kentucky, Alabama, and South Carolina.  It’s possible that the people of Washington State and even California are deciding they want to be represented by Senators from the South too.

Which is to say in the hands of other corporate flunkeys who won’t have to worry about having their committee chairmanships taken away by obstreperous liberal colleagues.

So come January all will be as it should be as far as the Serious People are concerned.

The corporate elite will continue to run things but with less worry.

The rich will continue to grow richer.

The middle class will continue to shrink.

American business will have a larger pool of anxious, desperate workers who will be glad for any job they can get at any pay with the barest minimum of benefits.

And if it all goes to pot again, well, then President Obama or some other naively “responsible” Democrat can be allowed to take office and clean up the mess in a way he or she will get no credit for because no credit will be deserved because it will be done by punishing the middle class, again, and then it will be back to business to usual, with the Right Wing propaganda machine making sure that Americans blame each other for the mess.

Comments

[Ken Muldrew]

"Yeah, well, I guess there's nothing to be done."
Howard "Bunny" Colvin, from The Wire.

[Sherri]

So I guess this helps explain the Tea Party fascination with repealing the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators). Gotta make sure only corporate flunkeys make it to the Senate, though there's little enough danger of that already, it seems.

[Sherri]

I meant, "of that not happening already" above.

[Sue]

Let's not forget Wisconsin, which might soon be contributing Ron "Sunspot-Activity-Causes-Global-Warming" Johnson to the mix. He's holding up surprisingly well against Russ Feingold so far, in spite of the above comments and others (drilling in the Great Lakes), and information coming out about taking government money (federal grant) for his business. Watching once-progressive Wisconsin falling for this baloney has been depressing.

[spiny]

Exactly right Lance. To be fair, we do have the systematic problem of the Senate disproportionately representing rural voters that will probably be all but impossible to change. But still, we had a brief, golden moment where reform could have blossomed- but instead we got a demonstration of just how corrupt and dysfunctional our politicians have become. It's all very disappointing but not exactly unexpected.

[Bruce]

"And if it all goes to pot again"

What do you mean _if_? It's _when_.

(And I'm not sure how many times more we can do this dance: as the global climate worsens, as resources get more expensive, as global food supplies shrink - there is, as Adam Smith used to say, a great deal of ruin in a nation, but like many things, it's a finite resource).

[Geoduck]

Ditto Bruce's comments. We just can't keep doing this forever. Not morally or something, literally, physically -can't-. Something's gonna give. If/when a GOPer gets back into the White House, it's gonna give all the faster.

However, in the immediate term, speaking as a resident of Washington State, the chances of Dino Rossi unseating Senator Patty Murray are zero. (Especially if he continues to try and get by without the endorsement of the official/former Wingnut candidate.)

[Lance Logic]

Hmmm. As I remember, certain bloggers shoveled all the sand they could shovel into the gears of the various initiatives of the former president. And now those same bloggers are... what's the word? Baffled? Indignant? Disgusted? Yes, disgusted the minority power party is standing in opposition to the majority power's steamrolling. (Or... yaknow... whatever you call it when you can pass any bill you want for 250 days and you don't actually pass any.)

Huh. Imagine that.

Well, it's good to know so many have seen the error of their ways and will support the values and initiatives of all presidents of any political persuasion going forward!

No more "party of no" for anyone! Hooray!

[Rana]

Agreeing with Bruce and Geoduck - so long as politics is a game to these people, one in which pieces and money and Senate seats are moved around with no regard for the real people and places the "game" affects, it's just going to be one piece of crud after another. Sometimes it will be a slightly less obnoxious team leading the playoffs, but nothing's going to change until it stops being a game for the people in power and the Serious People who fawningly report on them.

[Lance]

LL, are you talking about the time those bloggers stopped W. from invading Iraq? Or the time they convinced him to back off on his budget busting tax cuts? Or maybe you mean when they forced him to go down to NOLA and help all those people trapped in the Superdome and then stick around to clean up and rebuild the city?

You know that Max Baucus and Ben Nelson are Democrats, right? Personally, I'm not all that disgusted with the Republicans for acting like Republicans over the last two years. I was already about as disgusted with them as I could be for acting Republicans for the last thirty. I think the real disgust on the left side of the blogosphere is with the Democratic leadership for not acting like Republicans and getting the stuff they said they wanted to get done done.

[KLG]

Why I chose not to vote
By Wendell Berry
Special to The Courier-Journal - Monday, July 2, 2007

"I am well aware of the proposition that citizens ought to exercise their right to vote at every election. Even so, I did not vote in Kentucky's gubernatorial primary on May 27. I did not vote because there was nobody on the ballot whom I wished to help elect. I could not bring myself to submit again to the indignity of trying to pick the least undesirable candidate; nor did I want to contribute to the "mandate" of a new governor, who would be carried into office by corporate contributions, and whose policies I would spend the next four years regretting or opposing."

[actor212]

As I remember, certain bloggers shoveled all the sand they could shovel into the gears of the various initiatives of the former president. And now those same bloggers are... what's the word? Baffled? Indignant? Disgusted? Yes, disgusted the minority power party is standing in opposition to the majority power's steamrolling.

Not at all.

We're disgusted that our representatives have, in the spirit of bipartisanship and fidelity to nation and people, NOT STOMPED A MUDHOLE THE SIZE OF TEXAS in the minority party, as they had every right to, after eight years of being ignored and shunted aside.

[Bub Bless.]

You just described the condition that has led me to conclude that I will not vote this year. Possibly never again.
My next "vote" will be for hangings, perhaps.