The chaos on Capitol Hill has
been going on far too long, long enough for us
to draw some informed conclusions. The
situation has reached unbelievable depths of
dysfunction. The world is on fire around us
while those elected to the federal legislative
branch are mired in testosterone-driven
conflicts. Our representatives appear to be
incapable of leading the country. We need to
get past the late-night show jokes and
sarcastic social media memes. This is too
serious.
The partisan political
shenanigans continue to disgust the American
people. A recent Pew Research poll concluded
that our opinion of electoral politics and
elected officials is “unrelentingly negative,
with little hope of improvement on the
horizon.” The fact that the Republican
presidential front-runner is a former
president facing multiple civil and criminal
charges is downright scary.
This is the same Congress that
spent months haggling over the nation’s debt
ceiling debacle before finally agreeing on a
temporary fix. The country barely avoided what
some economic forecasters called the
“financial Armageddon.” The breach would have
resulted in a financial crisis that would’ve
reverberated around the world, starting with
the devaluing of the US dollar. Interest rates
would have soared while the stock market took
a dive. Social security and other federal
benefits would have come to a halt, throwing
many American families into deeper economic
despair.
The Democrats and Republicans
finally agreed on one thing. They agreed to
raise the debt and take up the issue after the 2024 elections. With
President Biden’s signature on the bill, the
country was able to avert its first-ever
default. For now.
I have plenty of criticisms of
the Democrats, but it is mainly around a lack
of strategy and their inability to assertively
move a progressive agenda forward. The bad
behavior is not equal for both parties. Hands
down, that jacket can mainly be worn by
Republicans. The far-right wing element within
the GOP keeps driving the country dangerously
close to the proverbial brink.
Now the country’s business is
being held hostage because the Republicans
kicked out the Speaker of the House with
absolutely no plan for a successor. Kevin
McCarthy barely won a decision to be the
reigning champ after fifteen rounds. He and
his reckless colleagues appear to be
punch-drunk now after that bout as they
struggle to find McCarthy’s replacement.
The growing public disdain and
alienation is bound to have consequences for
the upcoming election cycle. There is little
voter enthusiasm except by the MAGA forces.
The country is facing big problems with little
leaders: high inflation, shameful
homelessness, workers strikes, ecological
destruction, senseless violence.
The rest of the world is also
looking to the US for leadership. The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict hit a volatile
flashpoint that will lead to unprecedented
atrocities in the coming weeks. The leadership
desperately needed on the domestic and
international fronts is not forthcoming.
Those of us who understand the
gravity of the situation are at a loss as to
how to get our elected leaders focused and
serious about the challenges facing the
planet. Shaming doesn’t work. Trying to
replace Tweedle Dee every two years is
time-consuming and expensive, not to mention
there’s no guarantee of a People’s victory.
Voters have begged for accountability and
transparency to no avail as the corruption and
dysfunction continues blatantly in our faces.
I’m no expert on national
security but it seems to me that this kind of
internal strife and turmoil make the country
vulnerable to foreign attacks - covert or
overt. It’s what the CIA operations look like
in other countries when it needs to expand or
protect the U.S. empire - create chaos and
instability for a regime change.
We who believe in democracy have
to up the ante if we are to move from a
defensive posture to an offensive one. We
can’t get so disgusted with the process and
the players that we give up and give in.
There’s too much at stake.
First, don’t try to deal with
435 herding cats: deal with your own cats in
the House and the Senate. Organizing for power
at the grassroots level means building bigger,
stronger and more effective coalitions with a
shared vision and objective demands. These fat
cats don’t respond to a handful of angry
people at their doors or a couple of letters
of disappointment. We gotta organize BIG or
stay home and suffer silently. Just remember,
the meek have never inherited the earth.
