America Lost

American governance has hit a screeching stop. We now have a Senate with rules that allows a single senator to hold up the process of governance. Today there are still 70 government nominees of Pres. Obama's still pending senate approval. Why? Because some senators have realized that they can hold the governance of the country hostage to get special benefits for either their state or themselves. The collective good of the country no longer has merit. Requiring a super majority for any legislation to be passed now is also a Juggernaut to governance. The more the majority party calls the opposition the party of NO, the less the public pays attention and blames the gridlock on both parties.

We have never seen before the minority party in such a solid adherence to the task of crushing a sitting president. They will only participate in the process if the legislation is theirs only, so the minority rules, not the majority. This is evident by their recent response to Pres. Obama's health care summit. Republicans were invited to the summit to present their arguments for their proposals, along with the Democrats. All things are on the table for consideration. However, the Republicans responded with demands; first, start from scratch and abolish all prior bills and amendments, second, only their proposals would be acceptable for their support for a bill. Since the President is not going to have any preconditions for the summit, the Republicans will not attend and continue to obstruct any progress in passage. The interesting thing is that many of the proposals by the conservatives and Republicans have been included in the current bill, and yet that is not enough compromise to obtain their vote. It has to be their way only, or no vote. That is not the way our system of governance works.

The Republicans learned in the 90's from Bill Clinton. Clinton took many of the Republican policy ideas and made them his own, like welfare reform, reduction in government size, pay as you go policy, etc. They saw Clinton was able to take credit for these during his re-election campaign. This reduced Dole's ability to set himself apart from Clinton and the tax and spend motto they like to hang on Democrats, so why change leadership, except in the Congress. So this time around, they are not going to vote for any legislation that they want and is part of their platform, because they fear Obama will be given credit for it and they would loose out in 2012. They only have one choice and that is to vote no on any substantive bill. Given the senate rules problems, this means absolute grid lock.

The Senate has become an obstacle to governance and should the conservatives win more seats in November, there will be absolutely no chance of any bills passing, unless they are purely Republican, and then you will have the Democrats blocking the passage. It will be a no win situation for the country.

America has reached the end of its greatness in civility of a pluralistic society. The anger that has simmered and remained hidden out of fear during the Bush years is now erupting. The problem is that without leadership in the senate minority to work with the majority to calm this anger, it will build into outrage and civil war. We are reaching a point that the people have lost all respect for their government, mainly the Congress, and want some type of change, but they don't really know what kind of change they want. Something that resembles civility in the Congress and some level of bipartisanship, as we have had in the past?

The Tea Party is capitalizing on this anger, but their pure libertarian approach with a high dose of theology is only fueling deep rooted bigotry, hatreds, frustrations and anti-government anger that can not help to find answers to our social and financial mess. If this group along with the Republicans in general congeal into a frenzy force, much the same as in Europe in the 1930s, we could see armed revolts and violent hostilities between sectors of our country. Immigrants, LGBT and non-Christians will be targets for violence. There is a movement among the conservatives to break up the country into smaller fiefdoms based on conservative-religious lines. The country is in for a very difficult time until calm can be re-established and a focused vision of the future can be accepted by the super majority of the country. Otherwise, the great American experiment will fail, and we repeat history of many great past societies of the world and cease to be a great nation. An authoritarian regime of a coalition between Wall Street and Christian extremist will seize power. The future looks grim.

What saddens me greatly are my conservative family members who are oblivious to this problem and are fueling the very flames of hatred and bigotry. And these are the family members who profess absolute adherence to Mormonism. Mormons who were the targets of hate and violence in its early years, and yet now fuel the fire of intolerance and greed. I just don't understand that mind set.