If We Last That Long......

Well, some good news for a change….America is waking up.  There are some patriots after all.  Murkowski, Collins, and McCain apparently have not lost their grip on reality.  I thought Lindsay Graham would have been the fourth of that quartet, but alas, after spitting fire over the prospective firing of Jeff Sessions and Bob Meuller, he caved and voted yes to a ‘Skinny’ measure that would hurt millions.  I ....almost loved him.

I am dumbfounded by the inability of what should be rational men and women to sit together and forge some repairs to the Affordable Care Act!  What is wrong with these people?  Are they hell bent on cutting off their noses to spite their faces??  Why can’t they stop being children and sit down with the opposition and craft something that will help people.  ACA is the law of the land.  It is treasonous to not administer the law, which is what the Executive Branch is threatening. 

Congressional Republicans, alas, seem to be single minded about destroying something that is actually working….flawed, but working!  In fact, the actual architecture of the ACA was created once upon a time by Conservative Republicans of the Heritage Foundation.  Mitt Romney actually passed a version of it in Massachusetts once upon a time and it worked pretty well..Somehow because ACA has the name Obama attached to it, it is suddenly poison.

Ah well, there is no explaining irrationality.  It simply is, and it is our responsibility to weed it out in 2018….if we last that long. 

On a positive note, here is a chart courtesy of MSNBC that shows an interesting and hopeful statistic:

This chart tracks the historical number of potential candidates who have filed as challengers to House seats and raised $5000 for the next years election.  This is encouraging.  Note that in 2009 the Republicans hit a high point in the number of challengers.  The 2010 election resulted in the Republicans gaining control of the House after Obama’s election in 2008.  What do you think this means for 2018?

So maybe there will be a return to reality next year…..if we last that long.

My clarion call has always been to engage our next generation in a call to public service.  It is the only way we can have a progressive vision for the future.  The ancient concretized Republican gerrymanderers must be rooted out to see any appreciable change.

And finally, it should give all of us some comfort that the separation of powers and inherent checks and balances that our genius founders implanted in the Constitution actually seem to work.  A bit creaky with age, but nonetheless effective.  As McCain aptly pointed out in the Senate a few days ago, the Congress is not ‘less than’ the Executive branch, it is ‘equal to’.  And slowly, some Republican Senators are actually realizing they have no fealty to an incompetent maniac.  We should all nourish their emerging awareness….if we last that long.