Comic Opera

 Calhoun's Cannons for Nov 6,2014

The U.S. seems a country hell-bent on its own failure.

                                    Clive Crook

Well,, that election was a head scratcher.  From the first days of the Obama administration, Republicans determined that their number one priority was to become the Party of NO! And for years, voters caterwauled about this do-nothing Congress, yet when given a chance they elected even more Party of No Republicans and sent them back as a majority in both Congress and the Senate to do even more nothing. 

According to a Pew Research Center poll, likely voters disliked the Republican Party even more than they disliked the Democrats and 68% said they'd like to fire every incumbent. But when the chance came to do just that, they reelected the incumbents and sent even more of the "disliked" Republicans to Washington.

So either the voter's wails of discontent to the pollsters was all an act or the American voter has an inability to grasp the concept that if you don't like what A is doing, electing two more A's won't solve your problem.

The comedy got even better when Congressman Mitch McConnell gave his victory speech. "Just because we have a two-party system doesn't mean we have to be in perpetual conflict. . . We have an obligation to work together on the issues where we can agree," said the man who vowed that his number one priority in Congress was to make Obama a one term president by stopping anything the President proposed.  Now that Republicans have both houses, he is proposing comity with a straight face? It does not get any better than that.

Democrats, of course, are now covered in sackcloth, wringing their hands and wondering why they lost to a political party whose popularity rated lower than dog poo.  True, some of the losses came because of Republican gerrymandered districts and the new Republican efforts at voter suppression, but the real answer for the Democrats is in the numbers:  Not enough of them bothered to go vote. 

So either their wails of discontent to the pollsters was all an act as well, or Democrats are hazy on the concept that if you don't like what A is doing, and you have a chance to vote A out of office, sitting home on your couch on election day won't  solve your problem.    

What a country!

Well, good luck to 'em all.  McConnell has his work cut out for him -- herding Republican House cats, a gaggle of Tea party anti-government types wishing to burn the place down, ambitious men with knives, eyeing Caesar and dreaming, with El Gato Primo, Ted Cruz, being the biggest dreamer of them all. The President said he'd sit down to sip bourbon with McConnell. Good advice.  And bring a bottle of aspirin.  It's going to be a bumpy, comical two years.

Not so comical is that through all this nonsense,  Mother Nature's clock is ticking. A recent UN report on global warming has made it clear that we only have a narrow window of opportunity for major political and technical action to pivot away from carbon-based energy if we're to avert the worst of what's coming down on  us.   Recent polls have shown that global warming now has a majority of voters concerned, yet they just voted for a House and Senate controlled by the party of climate deniers, a party committed to King Coal and Big Oil, a party that will ensure two critical years will be lost while the Big Burn continues or accelerates.

So, either the American people really don't care about their future and are lying to the pollsters, or they don't understand the concept that Mother Nature does not negotiate.  Her terms are clear: Burn it now and your grandchildren will burn later.  Very simple.  And not funny at all.