Observing Chaos In The Congress
JAN 21,
2023
ROLLAND KIDDER
You may find
this hard to believe, but I don’t think such chaos even helps Democrats. They
sat by as helpless as a flounder in the sand. There should be no “I told you so” coming
from Democrats. That doesn’t help anyone.
I used to think
that it was the Democratic Party which was the most disorganized of the two
major political parties. I happened to be a delegate to the 1980 Democratic
Convention where the Party engaged in a week-long battle between its then
sitting President, Jimmy Carter, and forces supporting the insurgent candidacy
of Ted Kennedy. That fracas, of course, ended up helping elect the next
Republican President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.
Perhaps, that
would argue that the chaos in the House surrounding the election of McCarthy
might help Democrats. Yet, they shouldn’t count on it. Right now, I would say
that the country has an attitude of “pox on both their houses.” People
are just fed up, in general, with things going on in Washington.
What the “dust-up” in
Washington illustrated to me is that the Republican Party is in great flux. Right
now, the culture warriors in the Party have turned on each other. “Who is the
true MAGA believer?” “Who really supports Donald Trump?” “Who has really
drunk the Kool-Aid or only purports to?”
For what it’s
worth, I see this culture-warrior wing of the Republican Party beginning its
descent into irrelevance. The old Republican Party of pro-business, smaller
government, private sector-leaning believers will be coming back. It is just a
question of how and when.
Traditionally,
our deepest commitment to our political leaders has always, ultimately, been
grounded in the ideals of the country–Washington with independence, Lincoln
with saving the union and ending slavery, or Franklin Roosevelt with lifting
the country out of the Great Depression.
Our focus on political
leadership has never before been “divide and conquer,” “stop the
election,” “crush the immigrants.” The Trump era is in
decline. It is just a matter of how long it takes. And, I, for one, can’t wait
until it is over.
I have always
thought that politics in America is like a giant pendulum. It swings back and
forth. Just as you are thinking that the Democrats can never win the Presidency
again…they come up with Franklin Roosevelt who wins four terms. Yet, after five
terms of Roosevelt and Truman, the Republicans bounce back and Dwight
Eisenhower is elected President for two terms.
The pendulum
continues to swing. Maybe the chaos in the House, will help swing the balance
of power in the Republican Party back towards the middle. If so, it will have
accomplished something. Aside from that, the free-for-all, or free-fall, we
experienced watching the recent, politically dysfunctional antics in the House
will have served no useful purpose.
Rolland Kidder
is a Stow resident and a former New York state Assembly member.
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