Civilization

“There is such a thing as too much civilization.” — Anon.

Do you get the sense that the patina of the world’s civilization is wearing thin? Watching cable TV would certainly lead one to conclude that it is ... given the barrage of insults that one hears there.  Of course the obvious culprit is President Trump who is not shy about expressing his thoughts, however hostile. This encourages his haters to wade even deeper into the wallow ... and so the back and forth.

A validation of this swing toward vulgarity is that Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, possibly one of the most honorable politicians around, hasn’t a snowflake’s chance in South Chicago of taking over from his boss in the 2024 election.

But is Trump’s behavior  a cause or a symptom? I suggest the latter. Civility is disappearing all around the world ... Hong Kong, Paris, Ecuador, Iran, Chile, London, Iraq, Venezuela, the House Intelligence Committee, etc. And Trump is but a bystander to these events.

Perhaps it is because civility must run in cycles? As civilization’s veneer is built up layer after layer with fairy-tale memes, it finally becomes too ridiculous for commoners to tolerate ... and the people revolt ... and this precious pretentiousness is scuttled.

To me, kind reader, it seems that we have hit this silliness ceiling ... which has spawned a huge partisan food-fight ... at the obvious cost of our country’s comity. Things won’t return to sereneness until all the fops are guillotined.

Gridlock

President Obama’s job approval numbers are not very good at 43% … see: Gallup Polling. But the American public thinks even less of Congress … at 15% … see: More Gallup Polling. Clearly, this disparity has something to do with the president's and the media’s meme that Congress is in gridlock and can’t get anything done. (There are a few of us who actually think that might be a good thing.)

The complaints that underlie these low Congressional approval ratings center around our legislative body’s inability to solve and resolve such issues as immigration reform, infrastructure upgrades, tax reform, economic growth, administration scandal investigations, income inequality, entitlement reform, Obamacare fixes, etc. All very pressing issues and ones whose failures President Obama constantly and consistently blames on the Republicans … particularly those in the House of Representatives.

But, to me, I believe that this Congressional gridlock is a function of four things that are pretty much invisible to the American public:

1)     The dictatorial manner in which Harry Reid runs the Senate … wherein longstanding rules are flaunted, House bills never see the light of day on the Senate floor, Republican amendments to Senate bills are seldom brought up for debate or a vote, and the partisan divide of the Senate in constantly being inflamed by Harry Reid’s biased and malicious rhetoric. Legislative comity here has all but disappeared.

2)     The Republicans in the House have lost faith in the Conference Committee process wherein different versions of the laws passed in both houses of Congress are resolved. As a result, now, often resolutions passed in the Democrat Senate are not brought up for a vote in the House … even with amendments, which somehow always seem to get lost in conference.

3)     President Obama has gone a long way toward establishing an imperial presidency … often ignoring key provisions in laws passed by Congress … or using "his pen and his phone" to effectively establish his own laws. Congress is therefore understandably reluctant to provide our fearless leader with more platforms on which he can construct his mini-tyranny … and again blame any failings therefrom on Congress.

4)     The fact that President Obama has horrendous interpersonal relations with much of Congress … even many Democrats. This clearly is based upon his untrustworthiness and aloofness. Yes, every so often, Obama will make a media show of sitting down with Congressional leaders. But these events are always for conning and not for consequence. This grandstanding on the president’s part further drives a wedge between these two branches of government.

In truth, one wonders why these Gallup polling numbers for the president and Congress are not reversed ... they clearly should be.