Just A Thought...

... Maybe voters are more sophisticated than some (me) may think. Maybe it's occurred to them that only Rs vote in lockstep; that only Rs are willing to torpedo the economy in exchange for votes; that in the Senate, since BHO's election, Rs have used the filibuster more times than any party in history.

So, let's consider, in the name of the desire to get things done (even, evidently, if they're the wrong things, like pretty much everything Rs want to do), voters figured it could happen only if Ds were in the minority in the Senate. Only Ds would break with their party and march across the aisle once in a while; only Ds would be loath to filibuster the way Rs have done.

Predictably, that part is already happening, by the predictable people. Now let me make clear: I'm all for compromise when there's a reasonable middle to be found. But the only ones who've indicated a willingness on most matters have been Ds: they did it on health care, the stimulus, taxes, and pretty much all of Obama's initiatives. With well-known results, in terms of getting R votes.

So if compromise is a good thing, what I see happening is nothing of the sort. Rs will propose their usual pro-Kochian, anti-science, anti-environmental programs, all of them. And enough Ds will refuse to filibuster (unlike the Rs, in times soon to be past) that their lockstep and uncompromising programs will be passed. Vetoed, maybe. But passed in Congress.

Or let's take this alleged sophistication of voters to the meta level: what they really had in mind is, knowing the above, getting the backward R legislative agenda fully in the open. Written down. Passed out of both houses, no room to hide. Then, when the president explains why it's horrible for the future of our country and vetoes it, people will finally, despite the fact that with only a little digging it's been visible for a long time, see what's truly at stake. And that there's not a hell of a lot of time left to get going.

Well, in the time it took to write this I've been able to come to a conclusion about the proposition: nah. That's not it. That's not it at all.

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