Letter 2 America for January 3, 2014

Dear America,

Now that the year 2013 is done it might be fair to ask this question.  What just happened?

The political reversals that occurred during the year seem unlike those of any year in memory.  President Obama started the year on a roll, and when the Republicans tried the same old Newt Gingrich politics that relegated him to the political hinterlands, they stood with great confidence behind the same fatuous, specious rhetoric that Newt used to get where he is today, and they got to the same place.  What a surprise.  For calculating politicians, the Republicans sure don't seem to learn their lessons very well.  But then came Healthcare.com and the Obama administration's stock sank like a stone...once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  It's amazing how often that phrase comes up when describing the Democratic Party.  The Republicans are the foot shooters and the Democrats are the defeat snatchers; the two parties would have to change their names thusly if there were truth in politics as there is in advertising, but I digress.  As to the outcomes of these two debacles however, I would have to say that the Democrats won ground in the exchange of failures.  In the end, the Republicans had to make a virtual apology to the American people for following the course dictated by the reactionary cadre within, and the leadership of the party wound up disavowing their politics...John Boehner even chastening the Tea Party faction with, "are you kidding me" when referencing the admission in caucus by those dogmatic, ultra-conservatives that they never thought their plan to defund Obamacare by refusing to keep the government open would work anyway.  On the other hand, once The President fell on his sword over the incredible scale of the failure of a company called CGI--which also failed in Oregon and Massachusetts--to manage creation of Healthcare.com, he grabbed the bull by the horns and oversaw the rectification of that failure in what must be characterized as an equally spectacular fashion.  Over two million people, many of whom never had health insurance before, have now signed up for plans on the federal website and those of the various states that opted to design their own.  The goal is seven million by March 15, and it seems within reach if the past predicts the future.  It is a phenomenon, this reversal of fortune by the Democrats: something that rarely happens to that party, and couldn't be more timely with elections coming up in eleven months.  If I weren't so sure that the Democrats are not capable of such foresight, I would conclude that it was all part of a plan.

But still, John Boehner has declined to rule out a fight over the debt ceiling, which will be an issue again in February.  Thus, the Republican foot-shooting pistol seems ready and loaded for elephant again, so 2014 may be a reprise of years past in that regard.  The Tea Party just won't go away, but McBoehnell at least seem willing at this point to buck the tide they represent, at least so they have said on a couple of occasions on which the Democrats ate their lunch, and that suggests that this year, government might return to functionality, and to the civility and comity that characterized it in earlier decades...such as it was.  Politics in Washington has always been a contact sport, but at least in the eighties, when Reagan was president and Tip O'Neill was Speaker of the House, the executive branch and the legislature could talk to each other and agree to disagree in pragmatic fashion.  Of course, there was posturing then, and there will be more in this election year; after all, the primary goal of every politician is to get reelected.  But beyond lip-service to the obduracy of neo-conservatives in the Republican Party, my guess is that we will return to debate over issues without extortionate maneuvers...either procedural or parliamentary.  Unfortunately, that may mean that no more progress will be made toward eliminating the filibuster for good, and though it gets little attention, The House has its own parliamentary esoterica--the equivalents of "filling the tree" and the cloture rules for ending filibusters in The Senate--that show no signs of frailty.  Any representative can call a vote under the "regular order" of The House, but the equivalent of filling the tree in The House--passing a rule for a given bill that only the speaker or his designee can call the vote--is de rigueur when partisan issues arise.  Thus, we might well get another record for congressional inaction in 2014 thanks to John Boehner's shamelessness when it comes to party loyalty, but in The Senate, business should return to the normalcy that obtained when "Washington" was a collective institution that actually operated to some good effect.

Regardless of filibusters and special rules, 2014 should be a better year than 2013 if current trends continue.  After all, it probably couldn't get worse.

Your friend,

Mike