Polls this past week demonstrate how a majority of Americans are totally disgusted with the stalemate and gridlock in the federal government, which has become a norm of American politics.
Sixty percent in a poll would want to replace every member of Congress, and only eleven percent have a positive view of Congress, an all time low.
The Republican Party brand has suffered heavily, although the Democrats are not exactly looked upon as a paragon of virtue either by the American people.
Of course, there is no way that all members of Congress could be defeated due to the fact that the US Senate has only one third of its seats up for election every two years.
Additionally, while the House of Representatives faces election of all of its members every two years, the reality of gerrymandering makes replacement of incumbents highly unlikely, with maybe ten percent of the seats truly competitive, if that much.
And of course, were it possible to defeat all members, it would be unwise, because that would leave us with new members with total lack of experience and expertise, and this is the the problem with the Tea Party Republicans, who mostly come into government without any knowledge or understanding of what is possible in government, and the role of compromise in making a political system work.
All that a new Congress would accomplish is the growing power of unelected staff, which would be the only continuity in American government, and that would not be a good situation.
What can be done is to have higher turnout for midterm elections, with the hope that it might lead to the party of whoever is President having a real mandate to accomplish the goals that any President has been elected on two years earlier. The tradition has been that the party in the White House loses seats, with a lower turnout by party faithful.
Of course, if somehow, gerrymandering could be overcome, and the filibuster in the Senate modified, real progress and continuity and compromise would be more likely, but that is, at this time, a utopian dream, sad to say!
Hello Professor,
One of the biggest problems with the right is that they are reality deniers. They go through intellectual contortions that are far less graceful than a pole dancer.
Both are deliberately exploitative. Pole dancers sell a sexual fantasy; the right tries to sell an ideological fantasy.
We saw it with Mitt Romney, who, along with his supporters, believed that he was winning by a landslide when he was losing………..right up to when he lost the election, badly.
Now we see the same thing by the reality denier, Ted Cruz, who is trying to promote the fiction that Obamacare is costing jobs, and other false claims.
Today reality is biting Ted Cruz in the behind, along with the “Nut Job” extremists who share his positions on Obamacare, on government size, on the shutdown, and on the debt ceiling.
Several years ago when I was speaking with Jack Kemp, I passed on my concern of the W. Bush administration’s propensity to blowing the budget and national debt to levels never before seen. Jack’s reply was, “What, it is less than 15% of the GNP.”
Well if we use this statement as the litmus test, President Obama has a better record than W. Bush….so I guess to throw one of the leaders of the Republican Party, and Vice President candidate’s own words; government size, and on the debt ceiling…..NO PROBLEM!
So in sumation, the Teabaggers have no argument and lost any viability straight from Jack Kemp’s own words.
I will be on the radio again tonight. The discussion will be on Nobel prise winners and how Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani advocate for women’s rights and access to education, and was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because she was unafraid to speak out. She should have won one too.
Here Be Monsters (Internet Radio Network)
“The Sunday Show”
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/here-be-monsters/2013/10/06/the-sunday-show-1
I must say that Jack Kemp never impressed me as being that knowledgeable, Engineer!
Malala may be 16, but she is a lot brighter than these Tea Party radicals!
People have to become more involved.
I examined the special U.S. Senate election, which was held this past Wednesday [10.16.2013], in New Jersey.
Turnout of votes cast was down 26 to 30 percent. Not from the presidential election of 2012, which resulted in re-election for Democrat Bob Mendendez, but from turnout in recent midterms. About 43 or 44 percent participated in the special U.S. senate election of 2013 in N.J.
Some may say that was an amazing enough turnout number; given N.J. Gov. Chris Christie having manipulated the schedule due to his lack of confidence in sailing to re-election. But in looking more at the numbers, Cory Booker’s margin of about 10.60 percentage points would have been even more had the schedule had been more in line with regular cycles. He landslided his GOP opponent in terms of sufficiently describing a landslide.
Christie will get re-elected on Nov. 6. Never mind his behavior on the issue of same-sex marriage which is, of course, a cynical political position. Hurricane Sandy extended his shelf life as did 9/11 for then-New York City, New York mayor Rudy Guiliani. But at least Guiliani reached his limits, laughably so, in early-2008. Christie will as well.
My favorite saying, in recent years, about involvement in politics came from Doc. Cornell West: You may feel that you are not into politics. But politics is into you. (That is not an exact quote.)