Statecraft Informer

I still believe The NEXT American Revolution is necessary, and some day will break through the gridlock, which has become our electoral reality.

Yesterday, a massive shift took place, with the majority of voters electing to bring the Democratic Party back to the leadership table. Donald Rumsfeld, ever the patriot, has fallen on his steak knife, while President Bush is dining, with as much grace as he can muster, on crow.
Time will tell how the menu will change.

Nationally, third party candidates did only about as well as they have the past couple of election cycles. At least they didn’t appear to have lost much ground, if any.

As I write this, I wonder if my fellow Americans will ever lose their dependence on foreign oil, or domestic snake oil.

The balance of power in Washington, thanks almost entirely to a remarkably incompetent executive branch, and slightly more corrupt than average legislature, is swinging back toward the Democrats.

Are there ideological differences between the donkeys and elephants? That mostly depends on where in history you choose to examine our two dominant parties. Not only has power swung back and forth between them, with an occasional third party “scare,� but the Democrats and Republicans have changed their stripes through time, as well.

The only thing that hasn’t changed is that Americans continue to believe – even in the face of overwhelming evidence – their twin primary standard-bearers are intrinsically honest, and they have no choice but to support the “least bad� of the two.

“Surely,� they seem to be saying again, “The new Democratic tsunami we’ve brought about will change the culture in Washington!�

Look, over there in the corner… That’s me, not holding my breath, but continuing to hold my nose.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for competence in our nation’s various halls of power. I’m expected to be competent, why shouldn’t they? When mistakes start piling up, and people are suffering and/or dying unnecessarily, change must come. If some people are too stubborn to see or admit the errors of their ways, 2X4’s are often required to get their attention, if nothing else. It appears the electorate chose a sledgehammer yesterday.

And so, the great pendulum of political power in the U.S.A. has begun to swing back in the far left direction of the recently woebegone Democrats, after reaching a Republican apex sometime around “Mission Accomplished.�

In the not-too-distant future, I can see the – by then – misbegotten Republicans, having suffered defeat and setback, and in the wake of new and “shocking� Democratic behavior, rising up once again to reclaim their preeminence; pulling the great pendulum of power back once more toward their esteemed position on the far right.

In the meantime and between time, as an old radio friend of mine used to say, each party will make glacial progress on topics that really, really affect the average American, while making tremendous pomp and pomposity about a variety of issues that stir the emotions, but rarely touch average American lives.

The worst part of all is that We, the People… The “average� Americans, will continue to lie strapped to the cold, hard table, at the nadir between our two monolithic masses of mayhem, slowly bleeding to death from each successive swipe of the sharp and heavy bob, which both wield, but neither can control.

Johnny Hart’s wonderful comic strip, “B.C.�, once featured a character sitting with a large rock tied to the top of his head. Another character, startled, asks about the rock. He’s told it’s for his headache. The second character exclaims, “The rock cures your headache?!� The first character smiles and says, “No, it gives you one.�

I think that’s how a lot of Americans are concerning Republicans and Democrats. It doesn’t make any sense to continue tying the rock of those two parties to our collective head, but time after time, year after year, we smile and we do it. We just did it again yesterday.

I’ll probably be able to laugh about it come tomorrow, but I just can’t today. My head really hurts.