The Washington Post made an interesting observation over the weekend:
The Republican-controlled Congress seems to be struggling
lately to carry out its most basic mission: passing legislation. A proposed
constitutional ban on same-sex marriage failed miserably. Long-debated
immigration legislation has reached an impasse. The House passed line-item
veto and estate tax measures that face significant hurdles in the Senate,
while the Senate devoted a week to impassioned debates over Iraq that only
resulted in two failed Democratic resolutions.Democratic critics are reviving Harry S. Truman’s taunt of a “Do-Nothing
Congress.” But many Republicans say they are exactly where they want to be
as they head into the November elections, which will determine whether they
retain their House and Senate majorities. In every instance, GOP leaders
pushed legislation known to have little or no chance of eventual enactment
but also known to appeal to conservative voters, whose turnout is crucial to
the party’s success.
I can agree with the sentiment that it is annoying and frustrating when the
two major parties seem to be expending more energy on attaining/maintaining
power than on serving the needs of the people.
However, I can’t help but thing that sometimes…particularly when
extremists on both sides seem to be in power…it’s not necessarily a bad
thing when politicians are doing nothing substantive. The alternative –
that they spend time crafting and passing bad legislation — is potentially
much worse.
