It's been almost a year since I could stand to write about the American political scene. I have become very disillusioned by a system which ensures that only a select few have a chance for electoral success through the application of massive amounts of corporate money. I'm tired of being disappointed by American voters too timid to stand up for the changes they insist they want. I was worn out from attempting to raise a discussion on what might be done about these things. I had to take a break.
Here's one of the last comments I made at that time:
"The devil is about to collect Obama's political soul (assuming he wins) and the Red Shoes are about to be put on his feet so he can dance to the neocon tunes he seems to like so much."
Obama did win election, something that wasn't a sure thing for far too long against a lame candidate who thinks 47 percent of us are moochers. With the fiscal cliff "deal" and now the sequester, the Red Shoes are obviously on Obama's feet and he's dancing to the GOP tune; and can't stop.
Since the election, the Republicans are working on ensuring that the lamest of them can win, no matter the strength of any future Democratic candidate by changing the way Electoral College votes are awarded. A very reasoned and balanced objection to this plan has been offered by Sam Hirsch for the Michigan Law Review.
But reason and balance aren't attributes of the Republican party. A mindless drive to achieve victory and power by any means is. Hence the efforts to suppress voters' rights in many Republican-dominated states, and the likely elimination of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by the radical reactionary judicial activists pretending to be Supreme Court Justices. The stakes are high in 2014, with the Senate just waiting for a Republican takeover. Nate Silver, who showed up the big polling firms with his predictions of the 2012 presidential outcome- recently predicted that while the Republicans are likely to show gains in the Senate, they aren't going to take control. What they will do is ensure that there won't be enough votes for cloture, making Harry Reid's dive to the mat regarding the filibuster rules that much more important.
The House is where the real battle will be waged, and the Republicans are seriously divided. It isn't yet clear who has the advantage, but the Democrats currently come in third after the Tea Baggers and the rest of the GOP. Much is going to change, depending on how long the fiscal wars go on, and whose pork ration gets slashed by sequestration. Who ends up being the top dog will determine what the House pushes as their agenda, and the mere human citizens can be damned.
Article comments
1 - troll
...both trains have the same destination - neither of their tracks leads to a just agenda - US party politics its punditry (Maddow and Klein not excepted) and its resulting government are of by and for the 1% who make the decisions about investment of surpluses
its a safe bet that the 99% will get as little of these as necessary to quell unrest...which apparently leaves lots of room for continued deconstruction of new deal safeguards
this should come as no surprise and there's no reason for optimism - its past time to shift the focus of progressive political action to the development of alternative forms of governance and mutual aid
(one thing to take away from the experiences of the occupy groups is that there is material support to be had from communities for social experiments)
support your local food-not-bombs group (for lack of better current options)
welcome back Realist
2 - roger nowosielski
Looks like you've just described a train wreck, troll . . .