Well... blast

[kickaha]

On the good side, the single-party lock on executive and legislative branches has been broken. Excellent. That was entirely too lopsided.

On the bad side, a single party now controls (barely) both halves of the legislative branch... and in two years it's almost certain they'll hold the executive branch as well...

...and we'll be right back where we started. Crap. Watch the insanity begin again as The Other White Meat begins *their* feeding frenzy.

Can a brother get some *balance*??

All I can hope for is that in two years the Congress splits again.

Comments

[treebyleaf.livejournal.com]

Um... oh hell f*ck no?

Balance isn't going to get us Habeas Corpus back. Balance would slow down and even out the changes happening, meaning we'd be settled where we are, and where we are is a scary, scary place to be.

"back where we started"-- back when I word-associated "politics" to pork-bellies and term limits? Please, please, please. Now I associate "politics" with journalists being handed over to military processing, holding facilities in my city imprisoning people without charges, people of color being threatened with arrest by uniformed officials for showing up at the Ballard locks with a camera, ordinary protesters being held days in warehouses without access to blankets, food, hygiene, or medication on the authority of party leaders.

Yep. Dems suck too. I know it. But in between Senator Bedfellow and Senator McCarthy, I'll dance in the streets for Bedfellow. My only hope is that the Democratic Party will take this as a mandate to restore civil liberties with reactionary zeal; my greatest fear is that they will try to capitalize on the increased power themselves, and change nothing.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I will be shocked if they do. Power grabbed isn't power relinquished by either party... and all the more convenient if you can wield it without being blamed for grabbing it in the first place. "Honest, it was just lying there when I get here..."

I'd love to be proven wrong, of course. I'm just not holding my breath.

[treebyleaf.livejournal.com]

(Wow you write fast!)

Yeah. If Clinton had used the opportunity in his lap to relinquish the still-standing increased executive powers back from Nixon/Johnson... well, we might still be where we are today but it wouldn't have been quite so durned *easy* to get us here. :(

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Exactly. :/ Neither party wants to give up the least bit, because golly, *they'll* wield it wisely, of course.

*sigh*

Hence, my appeal for balance. I *hope* that these insane and frightening moves will be rolled back, but... without the two sides being in tension and causing a *dialog*, I don't see it happening. :/

[arthane.livejournal.com]

We *can* hope, however, that there will be opposition to *more* power-consolidation and reductions in civil liberties...


... which I wouldn't have counted on with a republican congress.

Frankly, I'd rather have a democratic congress and a republican president than the other way around, but we'll see how the wind blows.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. My first line, after all, was expressing delight that the single-party-rule was broken, and that the steamroller has been stopped.

I just don't see that steamroller being backed up if the Democrats take a sweep of the executive and legislative branches in 2008, as some apparently do. It's been stopped, and frankly, that's all we can really hope for in our political system.

I agree with your assessment about which party has seemed better suited to which branch over time.