Okay, now that the dust has settled and the Senate Democrats caved on the FAA extension (although it looks like the Transportation secretary is going to play Lone Ranger on this one) and everyone is going home for a month I have a question to ask. What the hell just happened? How the hell did we just let our entire political process be hijacked by people we didn't ever cast a vote for?
Our representative Democracy is supposed to be made up of two governing bodies. At today's date they are made up of a body of 435 Representatives, and another of 100 Senators. Thanks to the resolution that just got passed extending our ability to pay our bills that we didn't even need, that august body of 535 has now been whittled down to 12 for the purposes of financial matters. 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats - 3 of each from each house. Now here's where it gets tricky.
All this Legislative Jury of 12 needs is a simple majority in order to make things happen. If they can come to a simple majority of 7 people then whatever they say goes and it moves to the President. If they can't agree then automatic cuts go into effect that no one has legislated. So these 12 people are going to fun the fucking country.
No let's parse that down a bit: 6 of those people are Republicans, and a certain dickhead named Grover Norquist has been assured by leaders of both houses that the people appointed will be people who have signed his pledge to never raise taxes under any circumstances. Think about that for a moment. 6 of these 12 have put the fiscal whims of this man above the country they swore an oath to. They used to hang people for shit like that and now they're put in charge of everything. They have instead sworn allegiance to a man who believes that government should be drowned in a bathtub.
And now there's the other 6. Leaders of the Democratic Party are already saying that everything is on the table. Well, let's take a look at the past couple of years and parse out what that means. It means giving the Republicans what they mostly want. As proof positive of this, the Senate leadership is considering appointing Max Baccus or someone similar to him - a blue dog - who often votes with Republicans and has been known to flirt with Mr. Norquist as well. All it takes is one vote like this and it's game over.
So, the country is now run by the ideals of Grover Norquist? A man who has never run for elected office and has never held a post in government? Screw the Koch brothers and their money, the real power has been handed over to this dumbshit. People, the reason we only let elected officials run things is so that if they screw up we can get rid of them and replace them with someone hopefully better. How do we dump a dumbshit like Grover Norquist?
And yes, I know what I'm talking about when I call him a dumbshit. He's a fucking moron. He continues to spout ideas that the past 10 years have repeatedly disproven and has taught all of his disciples that spending less is the same thing as smaller government. Does anyone under the age of 30 remember a time when Republicans wanted government to be smaller so that it was more efficient?
WHO GIVE A FUCK HOW BIG GOVENRMENT IS IF IT'S WORKING!!?!!???!
Unless people take to the streets and put the safety of the American Governmental experiment ahead of their own lives - unless we have protests like we see in Egypt, France, Greece, Russia and other places - peaceful protest - unless we as a nation get off of our fat asses and do something, it's over.
And until the last few years, it was fun while it lasted.
Cheap Shots:
Woah. It means nothing at all, but it's still cool.
I despise the current governor of New Jersey. I think he's an awful man. That said, this bit of speech by him is downright awesome and deserves applause.
I wonder if Mike Hucksterabee has been hiring the same animators in Korea that Jon Stewart does when he lampoons the news for the Daily Show. They have the same level of truthiness.
And because I love you, Randy Newman
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