It's 2020, and even the most jejune commentators are
bored to death of the constant belaboring of the utter irony of 20/20
vision in the American dystopia of 2020. The very idea that anybody
in the government, ensnared as
it is in a gridlock so crippling that it can best be described as
more akin to rigor mortis, has vision is ludicrous on the face of it.
Polls show that amazingly Congress is even more unpopular than ever,
scoring far below tech help, used car and insurance salesmen, and
even below vegans.
A
small but dedicated cadre of the most-conservative of Republican
House members, who because of gerrymandering have safe districts as
long as they act like bombthrowers instead of reasonable legislators,
have managed to stall almost every bill since January of 2019, even
shutting down the federal government multiple times, using the always
reliable debt ceiling as a cudgel.
Adding
to the general chaos has been Democratic representatives staging
sit-ins whenever there is a mass shooting, which has averaged about
once a month of late. And, if that's not enough, Black Lives Matter
demonstrators have staged raucous protests and shut down major
thoroughfares in Washington, D.C. out of frustration with the
continuing inaction of the federal government. Throw the Democratic
governors of California, New York, and a handful of other states
threatening to declare their entire states Sanctuary States unless
comprehensive immigration reform is immediately implemented into the
mix, and you get the general idea that the Obama-era dysfunction is
now on steroids.
And all because of a computer program called Maptitude.
After the 2010 elections, Republican
operatives were able to use it to draw districts that resembled
Rorschach blots that with computerized precision were able to combine
different African-American communities for a Democratic district, and
then with the African-Americans safely ensconced in one
Democratic-safe district draw several districts that would be
Republicans-insured districts for years to come, regardless of the
outcome of presidential elections.
Before
the midterms, Democrats were able to work with a handful of
Republicans in order to pass a modest raise in the federal minimum
wage, a substantial but inadequate infrastructure bill, and some
tinkering at the edges of what was once called Obamacare. In 2018,
almost all those Republicans who committed the deadly sin of
cooperating with Democrats were soundly defeated by opponents so
conservative they'd make Ronald Reagan look like the head of
Politburo.
In
2020, President Hillary Clinton has her hands full. Like her husband,
she has been impeached by the House, and now, faces trial in the
Senate. After her electoral college landslide victory in 2016,
Republicans knew not to despair. They bided their time, until the
midterm elections, when the electorate favors them by being whiter
and older than the general population. And it paid off because of
America's unique mid-term elections when a small percentage of voters
can essentially overturn what the larger, more representative
electorate in a presidential election year voted for.
So the
umpteenth rumor of the death of the Republican Party proved to be
wrong yet again. In 2018, the House increased its Republican
majority, while the Senate reverted back to Republican control.
Facing a do-nothing Congress in the midst of out-right revolt,
President Clinton decided to do the only thing she could – issue
executive orders on a variety of issues, including immigration and
the environment. Taking none of that lying down, Republicans played
their trump card, so to speak, and got a special prosecutor with an
open-ended mandate. After months of testimony, Republican researchers
announced they found the smoking gun, what they believed to be
perjured testimony given by the President, ironically not on Benghazi or emails, but on some inconsequential documents that one of the many congressional committees investigating her had subpoenaed.
Besides impeachment, the Republican-led House hasn't
done much, except busy itself with largely symbolic votes to overturn
completely or partially what
was once called Obamacare, but is now derisively labeled Hillarycare.
The running tally now is 75 votes against and counting.
Of
course, 2020 is also an election year, and what a race it's been.
Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, former TV-star Scott Baio, and Willie
Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame lead another “yuge” pack of
Republican presidential (and Fox News) hopefuls.
Amazingly
after their last electoral drubbing, the Republican field has even
outdone the Trump of 2016 in their xenophobic, anti-immigrant rants.
They promise not only to build a wall but to send troops to the
border to stop disease-infested, gang-banging, criminal Mexican and
Central American immigrants or, depending on the day or audience, to
stop ISIS-inspired terrorists who are, they claim, sneaking in the US
by the truckload.
And
yet, multiple polls have shown that the American electorate has moved
even further to the left, fewer and fewer identifying as conservative
or Republican. Hefty majorities now favor a single-payer system of
national health insurance and giving the undocumented a path to
citizenship. And, it's widely agreed that President Clinton, if she
survives her impeachment trial, will be reelected easily.
If she does, the Republican drought in winning the
popular vote for the presidency will then stretch to twice in 32
years, a truly horrendous record, almost unparalleled
in American history. But with the inspired scheming of
the Republicans, each Democratic victory has proven diaphanous,
almost-Pyrrhic-like. They can win the presidency, but can't do
anything once they're elected.
The
net effect is that we have a center-right government of a center-left
country with your average citizen left with no way to effectively
change government policies – all because of a well-financed and
well-organized political minority interested more in fundraising and
doing the bidding of the billionaire class than in governance. In
2020, I promise you, you won't need 20/20 vision to see the system is
utterly broken.
