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Back to the Future … ?

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As the slow ride towards sequestration continues it’s hard to find anything more to say.  The possibility of a significant economic downturn and genuine pain being felt by many people has failed to move the parties towards any progress.  How can government be this dysfunctional?  How did it get this bad?

In attempting to answer this question I decided to take the Zen approach of unasking it instead.  This led to a wisdom all parties must take heed of – both in this quote and in the larger context:

As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

This is a part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, delivered 52 years ago.  The whole address, beyond the famous parts, is well worth absorbing today.

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After the Party … ?

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On this special Inauguration Day, also Dr. King Day, the nation can pause to think about where we are and where we are going.  The first thought that crossed my mind as Obama quickly and privately took the oath on the official day was, “Wow, Malia really has grown, she’s almost as tall as her Mom!”  Most of what we’ll here will be that kind of fluff that helps us all connect on a personal level to a warm, real family of actually very ordinary people in so many ways.

But that’s not what the party is really about.  The trappings of power will be all over as we start another term with the guy who got us through the last four years, for better or worse.  What can we expect?  What should we insist on?  How is this going to go down with a Republican House that appears to be uncontrolled?  It’s all guesswork, but we know a few things for sure.

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Yes, it Can Get Worse

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The clock is ticking down on 2012 and the “Fiscal Cliff”.  The event is something like the weather – everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.  Out my front door in St Paul it is 18F on a moonless night, the stars drifting by as they would on any other night.  Nothing is happening here, just as it is in Washington.  But nothing means many different things at different times.

Could the nothing of Washington be any worse?  We’ve only recently learned that the lack of a Farm Bill will likely double the price of milk, among other strange effects that will roll across the stillness of this Minnesota night like an approaching Alberta Clipper.  If we learn one thing in the middle of a big continent it’s that it could always be worse.  And yes, there is something horrible lurking in the silence of inaction – the death of the most effective anti-corruption watchdog Congress has ever had to deal with.

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A Guy Can Dream

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The Presidential election is tightening.  That’s only to be expected as we get closer, especially through the debate weeks.  It was predicted here that Romney simply showing up and looking like a human would give him a bounce after weeks of demonizing, and he did better than that.  Obama will have to find his A-Game to seal this thing.

But it is still Obama’s to lose.  The “toss-up” states are nearly all ones that Romney should be ahead in already, and he will have to win almost all of them to pull this thing out.  The big money is going to continue to flee his campaign and look to the more interesting races, particularly for the US House.

The race for the House is very close by the only measure we have, the Generic Congressional Ballot.  That could make for something very interesting this January no matter which party manages to pull it out.  In a big world of speculation this is worth thinking through.

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