tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081747433018117316.post390780768588357897..comments2024-03-29T15:01:37.626+05:00Comments on THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS: Why everything is FUBAR contd.Tom Shonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06938779517705582285noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081747433018117316.post-7950548274455358112011-03-22T05:10:53.738+05:002011-03-22T05:10:53.738+05:00Very interesting / persuasiveVery interesting / persuasiveTom Shonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06938779517705582285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081747433018117316.post-21938193079044622182011-03-21T12:52:35.519+05:002011-03-21T12:52:35.519+05:00It's the Senate, man - even without the secret...It's the Senate, man - even without the secret hold and effortless filibusters, it's a catastrophically undemocratic institution.<br /><br />In the early stages of the Republic, it wasn't a huge problem - unless you count the prolonged preservation of slavery. And in the century or so of westward expansion and new-state-making since the Mexican-American War, new territory and resources drew in all sorts of people. A balance of kinds was thus maintained.<br /><br />However, ever since the Sixties and the breakdown of Rockwellian America's homogeneity, the young, liberal, intelligent innovators have fled to the coasts, which is great for those areas, but it leaves behind entire swathes of states whose Senators are elected by tools and numbnuts. Alas, by sheer virtue of numbers, these clowns yank Congress, and by extension the country, far more rightward than their numbers would allow in an equitable system.<br /><br />And, as Cenk Uygur says, Obama's lifelong obsession is being smack-dab in the middle of whatever group he happens to be in. In the Illinois legislature, he was a moderate. In the '08 primary, he was to the left of Clinton but the right of Edwards. And now that instinct drives him to the left of McConnell but the right of... oh, dear... Boehner, who rode to House Speakership victory because Senate Republicans blocked many of Pelosi's best accomplishments. In short, we're all screwed because the Senate is FUBAR, and ever-increasing cultural migration is only going to keep worsening that very predicament.<br /><br />And here's the bad news: thanks to the impermeability of the Constitution (thanks, John Adams!), there *is no solution*... other than to hope that, in the next decade or three, we'll get a Supreme Court that isn't a *total* disaster, and we can make some modest reforms. This will, naturally, be after the next huge financial meltdown, when China has started to repossess our Hollywood starlets and large-screen TVs.<br /><br />God Bless America!Gaithnoreply@blogger.com