Predictably, after the 2018 midterm elections resulted in a split decision between a House of Representatives controlled by Democrats and a Senate and the White House controlled by Republicans, pundits decried the fact that split government would mean that very little would get done. Considering who the president is, is that really a bad thing?
Gridlock Is A Good Thing
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Given that Mr Trump has exhibited a certain tendency to attempt to rule by decree, it’s not completely clear that it’s a good thing either. But then again, the US Congress and Mr Trump together could very well constitute a bridge – or a thermonuclear catastrophe – too far….
Henri
I suspect that the midterms were the first step in what could be the most significant shift in American politics in several decades. Neoliberalism has had 40 great years: Reagan, Thatcher, the huge power grab after 9/11 that let the neolibs consolidate everything while the Internet Surveillance Era took off.
The next step is the contest for Speaker of the House. If Pelosi wins, it’s a bad sign: too many of the dem-friendly simply will not vote for HRC. And Pelosi represents the Good Old Days of identity politics in which centrist, weak candidates are accepted via an affinity scam pulled on voters. A Pelosi win means Hill will convince herself of her own swellness, and the dNC election fixers will try to screw Sanders again. End result? HRC will probably lose. Trump gets four more years and the Republicans–crumbling now in some locations–will reconstitute.
One can hope – there’s certainly a big push to unseat Pelosi.
The other thing to keep an eye on is GOP behavior in the coming congressional sessions. Even where they won, they won by narrower margins than last time.
Two more years of rampant Trumpism should turn the voters off even more…
I don’t want to be a buzz-kill about the upside of gridlock and not getting anything done…but.
Hitler campaigned on the inability to get anything done under the Weimar Republic.
Of course, we have nothing to worry about in the good ol’ USA, because Hitler aroused a significant portion of the impoverished masses to his support by scapegoating minorities, unions, etc.
And Trump would never do anything like that (Sarcasm warning here, for those unable to detect it).