Dear America,
Have you noticed that despite the fact that the election is over, Donald Trump is still the main subject of every news cast. As a nation we yearned for the election not to come, but to go...to be over, and now it appears that it never will be. Discussion of Trump and the election--incessant post-mortem analysis--continues unabated. Trump and our national fate now that he has astonishingly been elected are like an earworm...a song...a refrain that we can never get out of our collective head. But all that being said, I am going to join the chorus and say one last thing about the election. The consensus view is that this was a "change election" intended to sweep out the old and deliver something new in its place, but that is just a subterfuge for the fact that none of us knows what really happened, and here's the proof, other than this: there certainly has been no change.
The only thing that was altered by this election was the occupant of the White House. The Republicans continue to control congress...both houses. Conservative goals continue to portend reversion to what were the bad old days...or the good old days depending on your perspective, and progress toward a new, functional Washington to supplant the old dysfunctional one still are not even a pipe dream. Change for the better is a fanciful delusion that no one believes underneath it all. The problem with our government is, and has been for decades...a congress that runs on process rather than outcome. We are not a democracy, though the indoctrinated chauvinists of our country will insist that we are. Rule by the majority is a myth in which we indulge as a nation, not a practice by which we govern ourselves. The reality is that the oligarchs of congress, The Senate in particular, rule in such a way procedurally as to make it possible for them not only to prevent majority will from controlling but to obscure the fact that they have done so as well, and no one seems to care, much less is anyone willing to expose these fiduciaries of our democratic rights and their hypocrisy. We are governed pursuant to a couple of "gentleman's agreements" called the filibuster in The Senate, and in The House, where The Speaker determines if and when a vote is to be taken, by the "Hastert Rule," which proscribes a vote on any bill for which there isn't support by a majority of the Majority. This rule was created by, and is observed only by, the Republicans. By use of those tools, none of our representatives have to vote on any issue; instead, they can just vote not to vote, and legislation to benefit the majority of Americans...all of us...becomes nothing but unwritten history. Congress was barely altered at all by this election, which means that change had nothing to do with it. Our nation left the problem untouched, and instead aggravated the symptoms profoundly by empowering those who have stood in our way at least since 2010 when The House was taken over by the Republican Party...the Tea Party contingent of it in particular. A conservative minority controls everything, and until that changes, nothing else will.
So, the notion that the people of this country were seeking change and thus elected Donald Trump is nothing but a mask on the face of the real chimera of our democracy: congressional procedure, all of which is changeable by the members if they have the will to change it. To be blunt, the only way our nation is going to change is if the Republicans once again become the minority in both houses of congress, and if the Democratic Party doesn't elect more "Blue Dog" Democrats to despoil the power of the majority once the Democrats reacquire it. Here it is in a nutshell. If conservatives continue to control popular elections, which they didn't do in the presidential election--Hillary Clinton won the majority of the popular vote this year--we will continue to harbor the same viper in our democratic bosom for the foreseeable future. There can be no change as long as conservatives, almost by definition, control either house of our congress. And when I say conservatives, I mean conservatives of both parties. The Affordable Care Act doesn't include a public option, which would solve everyone's access problem when it comes to healthcare, because of the aforementioned Blue Dog contingent within what was then a Democratic majority in The House.
I am all in favor of change if it's an improvement, and God knows we need some improvement. I would be all in favor of Donald Trump if his election portended to bring it, but it doesn't. The Republicans control congress, and given the vice president Trump chose and the appointments that Trump is making, big money will return to control of the real world in which we all live...big money and moral sanctimony that is really nothing but unctuous judgmentalism and dictatorial false piety. That isn't improvement. It's regression. So much for change. So much for Donald Trump.
Your friend,
Mike
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