The Republican Party is incapable of governing
15 December 2023
At the federal level, it seems clear that the Republican Party is incapable of effective governing.
As noted in Heather Cox Richardson’s recent blog:
“The story is not what they [House Republicans] are doing. The story is what they are not doing.”
The only success for the Republican House of Representatives is in getting very little done, which perhaps is their goal.
They are in recess, but they have not done the following:
Funding aid to Ukraine and Israel, border security and humanitarian aid for Gaza;
Passing the Farm Bill, which governs the nation’s agricultural and food assistance programs and needs to be renewed every five years;
Passing the regular appropriations bills to avoid a government shutdown.
They have been called the Worst. Congress. Ever.
What I could not have known then, however, was that this would turn out to be the most ineffective session of Congress in nearly a century — and quite possibly in all of American history.
The year began with chaos and incompetence. It ended with chaos and incompetence. In between were self-created crises and shocking moments of fratricide — interspersed with more chaos and incompetence.
They did spend a great deal of time on political stunts:
Attempting a closed door deposition of Hunter Biden, although there was no evidence, despite years of investigations, that President Biden participated in illegal business deals before he became President.
Voting unanimously to open an impeachment inquiry of President Biden, despite there being no evidence of any high crime or misdemeanor. This is reminiscent of Trump filing lawsuits not based on an existing claim but to search for evidence of election fraud that his damaged mind knew must exist.
As U.S. citizens, we are responsible for our government. We need to not only vote but to be politically active to make sure our elected officials know what we want them to do and are held accountable (see these essays for more details):
Effective government requires our participation, 12 October 2023
Thoughts from Jennifer Rubin, columnist at the Washington Post, 22 September 2023
What you can do to promote democracy, 25 August 2023
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