In 2006, Democrats won a Congressional majority and the nation has been in a steady state of decline since. Recall that public opinion polls conducted last year reflected only a 9% approval rating for the Legislative Branch – the lowest on record. Nevertheless, in November, voters put the same majority back in Congress and today the entire country is paying for the lack of thought behind that vote.
The House Speaker coined the moniker “new direction Congress” for the Democratic majority elected in 2006, and at the end of two years in ‘power’, we indeed see the ‘new direction’ they have taken us – straight down and still spiraling. Rancor has fueled the agenda of this ‘new Congress’ from inception and today we see the hair-raising result of that … a once-thriving economy driven to its knees because the knowledgeable and skilled businessmen and women in the minority party are shunned or disenfranchised altogether. No one knows the ‘ins and outs’ of business better than the collective Republican Party; however, barred from meaningful input by Pelosi, it can do virtually nothing to mitigate losses sustained from any of the current crises. Across the country workers, homeowners, businesses both large and small, and entire industries are paying the price for Pelosi’s stubborn refusal to bring Republican thought and expertise into the legislative process. How long can the country labor under such a dictatorship without going totally bust? If the past two years and two months are an indication? Not long.
The key to turning this economy around is as simple as matching expertise with position. To date, that hasn’t happened and the markets are reflecting that. Wall Street sees Social Workers pretending to be Chief Financial Officers and isn’t impressed. Put another way, would you go to your local Medicaid Office for help with your income taxes?
That’s how badly skewed government gets under one-party rule. Today, we’re experiencing in real time the collateral damage inflicted on both our people and our nation as a whole when a healthy and necessary balance of power within our government ceases to exist. We live in a Republic, not an Autocracy. If the Speaker is incapable of comprehending that and acting accordingly, then she needs to be kicked out. It’s well past time to demand that the representatives to whom we, the people, have given authority to speak and act on our behalf be afforded the platform to do so. Anything short of that is not acceptable.
