Which brings me to a question to which I do not have a complete answer — is the country ungovernable right now because the Republicans have made it so, or are the Republicans merely taking advantage of the fact that, through its creaky institutional structures and through an unforgiveable lassitude towards the obligations of self-government on the part of the American people, the country has become ungovernable in and of itself.
The apparent lack of oversight and preparation in the implementation of the ACA is unforgivable, and the president and the Democratic party will (and should) pay something of a political price for it. But the fact is that the country wanted its massively fractured health-care system fixed, and it had wanted that system fixed since before Bill Clinton tried it back in the early 1990’s.
A completely ludicrous percentage of the country also wants criminal background checks on gun purchases. Right now, if you believe the polls, it is massively in favor of raising the minimum wage. And, actually, if you go below the surface of the polling on the ACA and health-care reform, you find a substantial portion of the country that doesn’t like the embattled law because it doesn’t go far enough toward health-care’s being a right, not a privilege and, in any case, the country repeatedly stated throughout the last 20 years that the status quo ante was an unacceptable combination of corporate avarice and personal tragedy. And yet, that is where the debate is right now, no matter how much Fred Upton says otherwise from deep in the pockets of the people who make money off human misery.
It has become remarkable how the people of this country, an ostensibly self-governing republic, fail to get what an overwhelming percentage of them say they want from their government, over and over again. You can argue, and I have, about the power of money, increased by an order of magnitude through the egregious Citizens United decision. You can argue, and I have, about the unforgivable vandalism practiced by the Republican party and the modern conservative movement that has been the prion disease in the party’s higher functions that has driven it mad.
But the fact remains that, dammit, there has to be a political price to pay for actively opposing something 66 percent — or, in the case of the background checks, 91 percent — of the people say they want. And the electorate is the only body of citizens empowered to exact these penalties, and it has been shamefully lax in doing so. Parts of the country have contented themselves with electing morons and crazy people. (How in the name of god does a buffoon like Louie Gohmert ever run unopposed?) Great portions of the country can be duped, or frightened, into voting against their own economic interests. And the great undifferentiated apathy that attends most of our elections is a deadweight on the democratic process that grows heavier by the year.
If our politicians are not responsive to our needs, then it’s time for new politicians, and we’re the only ones who can bring that about. And yet, it’s easier to complain about an inconvenient website, or a scary letter from an insurance company, or bullshit anecdotes that fall apart under the barest scrutiny. The country is ungovernable because we, The People, have decided not to govern it any more. That, to borrow a phrase from the president, is on us.
Ungovernable
It is all in your point of view. As I see it, the USA is being governed quite firmly and competently exactly the way it is wanted by people with wealth, property and power. It is designed so that no popular movement can gather enough power to make any substantial change without the permission of the wealthy establishment. The three branches, “checks and balances”, the rules of the Senate and the overwhelming power of the courts controlled by the elite class ensure this. So does the party system and the rules for electing politicians.
Whenever there is the threat of a drastic movement for change the system locks up as it is supposed to do.
It is not “ungovernable”. It is unchangeable.
Ungovernable? The productivity rate for the April through September period increased by 1.85%. Yet wages remained stagnant. So where did all of that ‘new’ profit go? You guessed it. Right into the pockets of the wealthiest 20%. As an aside here are some facts: The American Revolutionary War was started and supported by 10% of the colonists. 40% supported the King of England in the war. 50% had no opinion about who they wanted to be in charge of their lives. If Charlie is waiting for a groundswell of support for some corrective action to take place—-forgetaboutit.
I pretty much agree with PR. Government functions pretty much as those in power want it to function. Unfortunately for the country, that’s the 1%. They and their Rethug lackeys have spent 70 years constantly undermining effective self-governance. The only difference is now the DLC has Dems playing the same game.
Like Ron, I too agree with PR. I think the demise goes back further that the post-Goldwater Republican Party. You kind of look at developments in the 1920s and 1940s that set us on this road, and the pace has picked up ever since.
Whether it stemmed from Calvin Coolidge (“the business of this country is business”), for many years now the major political parties have both been clamoring that “government should be run like a business”. Are corporations, the predominant form of business in this country, at all democratic? No, they are strictly “one dollar, one vote” organizations, as opposed to “one person, one vote” organizations.
Does the voice of the individual matter? No, and it hasn’t since the 1920s – not since Edward Bernays came out with his “Propaganda” series which basically – for the benefit of the ruling elite – showed how you could apply (his uncle) Freud’s findings combined with propaganda techniques learned from the Great War – and “manufacture consensus” as to products that would be made and how citizens should fit the mold government and business want them to fit.
Any democracy or citizen involvement there? Not a bit.
Then, move on to the 1940s. We’ve had earlier imperialistic adventures, but the military force was always greatly reduced in size after each adventure – until the end of World War II. Then it stayed big, and has constituted for decades the largest segment -and always growing – of the government.
Is the military a democratic institution? Not by a long shot.
So – Here we are 80-90 years later, getting more and more entrenched in practicing the items noted above, and we wonder ‘why doesn’t “government” seem to respond to the will of the people’?
Really? Must we actually ask ourselves that?