I can think of few professions that allow humans to operate as spoiled children more than being a politician in a western democracy. Within the modern era we went from the first industrial revolution with its “age of enlightenment,” through the “Revolutionary Period,” the Imperial Age, the “Victorian Age,” a century focused on World Wars, and the “Information Age.[1]” Along the way, we in the United States have watched our government grow from one fearful of foreign powers to one which seeks to dominate the world stage. Our national identity has shifted from one seeking to remain independent to one which seeks out the largess of government and the protections it promises.
This shift in the national psyche has created a nation run not by the citizens but by professional politicians seeking as much individual power and wealth as possible, while assisted by an increasingly bloated bureaucracy filled with individuals it is next to impossible to remove, and who increasingly seem to have loyalty not to the nation, but to a single party rule that will expand their own power.
Within this century we’ve seen our Congress abandon its role as the keeper of the purse to one who thinks that purse is a huge piggy bank that will allow them to spend far more money than we as a nation probably should. In 2000 the national debt sat at a little under $6 trillion and its ratio to our Gross Domestic Product was 55% (not good, but not too bad). Today it sits at about $31 trillion, with a ratio to GDP of 123%. It has been over 100% since 2014[2] so this is not a single-party issue. The last time we had debt-to-GDP ratios like this was WW2, and then the dollars were measured in billions.
One of the issues in the 2008 election was the fact Congress had forsaken its role in creating a national budget and just spent its days inflating the budget given to it by the President. This created a “tea party” movement that was the first version of those racist citizens who sought to hold our government in check because they challenged the status quo, then led by our first African-American President.
During President Obama’s two terms the Congress ebbed and flowed (as it always does) between the Democratic Party and the loyal opposition, Republicans. But there was a sea change in how the politicians behaved towards each other and the voters. It became easy for them to accuse those who disagreed with policies of being racist, and the loyal media was happy to go along with that. The opposition spent most of its time trying to explain they were not racist, but no one was really that interested in the facts. If you couldn’t fit it into a sound bite it wasn’t worth broadcasting.
Even with the racist club available the Democrats in power were upset they couldn’t snap their fingers and get their way. So, they began to change to rules of the game, apparently without much thought about what happens when you abandon the rules that forced moderation. For example, led by Senate Majority Harry Reid, led an effort to abandon the 60-vote majority required for approval of cloture. Cloture is a parliamentary procedure for closing a debate and moving to a vote on the issue. The 3/5 requirement had been in place since 1975, but the Democrats reduced that requirement for “lower court justices to a simple majority” in order to move more approvals through the Senate. The minority complained about the move and warned of future consequences. Those consequences became real when the GOP gained control of the Senate and the Presidency. As a result, there were three justices nominated and approved and all the Democrats could do was rant and make accusations about their ancient past. Personally, I didn’t feel too bad listening to their childish tantrums other than wondering what future brilliant jurists would think twice about subjecting themselves and their families to this political theater?
Over the entire four years of the Trump administration, the Democrats were far more focused on destroying Trump than really working to improve the nation. Can anyone name any outstanding piece of bi-partisan legislation that came from the House through the Senate that made America stronger? I can’t. I do know the President made a lot of wild claims about how great the nation was doing under him, some of that a result of his direction to reduce regulatory oversight, but most of it was as much a function of government stalemate where the politicians focused on destroying each other and the nation moved along without them, mostly because no matter what their other focuses where they created trillions of dollars in debt. When Trump assumed office, the national debt was at around $20 trillion (104%), and when he left $30 trillion (124%). The real question is was all the “science-based” choices we went through with COVID really worth the inflation it has caused? That is a question with a million opinions and zero real answers.
So now we come to national disasters and who or what is the cause. For the left, the cause is clear and beyond dispute, or as they like to say, “the science is settled.” All these climate impacts, from the draught in the west, and resultant fires, the destruction of tornados in the mid-west, to the hurricanes that have hit the US and its territory of Puerto Rico are all massively worse because they are a result of that growing impact on the climate.
In Florida, I believe we are seeing massive impacts not because the hurricane was worse than historical ones, but is more accurately caused by man’s arrogance that we can ignore how the weather really works and build whatever we want, where ever we want as long as we can pay the right politicians the right amount of money. We see build-ups in the barrier islands, where the property is built on the sand, and flooding in central Florida because the runoff has nowhere to go except into the streets and property of private homes.
Of course. the politicians can’t let a good disaster go to waste so we will spend billions of federal debt to help convince the victims the government is there for them. We will strengthen Puerto Rico, until the next hurricane when we will again strengthen them, and we will fix Florida while telling the insurance companies they need to keep their rates low, even for those on the greatest at-risk properties.
As we approach the bi-annual renewal of the incumbent contracts for Congressional representation, and the reelection of almost 1/3 of the Senate it will be interesting to see what Americans truly believe are the important issues?
According to which political party you prefer it is either the economy, crime, border security, and safety. Or it’s abortion rights and anti-fascism. I guess sometime after the second Tuesday in November we will really know what the voters of the various districts think are the issues they will vote for or against.
