So True, Charlie Brown, So True

As famously, if not infamously exclaimed by Charlie Brown, "Good grief!"

Perusing Internet (so called) news sites leaves one thoroughly dismayed.  For example:

• Pelosi declared her six year old grandson wished he were brown.  
• A woman was denied aircraft boarding because of an "emotional support hamster."  
• Two school principals were arrested, one for failing to report six year olds had filmed themselves committing sex acts, and the other for failing to report a sexual assault by a seven year old.    
• A university professor told his class he wished the President were dead.
• POTUS wants a military parade in Washington, DC.
• Opinion writers, who never served in uniform, posing as journalists make categorical declarations about what it means to be in the military.  
• The Dow Jones drops more than 2000 points.
• Congress passes spending bills that deepen our already unfathomable sink hole of national debt.
• Self important "celebrities" declare this and that are horrible, yet strive for the most air time and "news" coverage.
• A bankrupt city wants to provide residents $500 per month, no strings attached. 

Good grief indeed.

Spending other peoples' money.  Narcissism running amok.  Avoiding personal responsibility.  Failing to perform the duties of the office to which elected.  Extending victimology to unheard of and unwarranted areas.  Ascribing sexual awareness where none exists.  Claiming unearned expertise.  Wanting to use the military as potted plants in shameless self-promotion (see footnote).

Good grief.   

That supposed intelligent people are involved in each and every (and vastly more) illustration is disturbing.  From this vantage point is seems as if reason and tolerance have been replaced by absurdity and bigotry.  And it continues unabated.

Good grief.  

The list of examples is virtually endless.  Has the nation gone mad?

Charlie Brown and his fellow characters could certainly do better than those involved in the illustrations.

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Footnote: lest one think this is unique to the current White House, do not forget that First Lady Obama appeared on the broadcast of the 2013 Academy Awards, with uniformed military officers as set decorations and dressing.    

Come Wednesday morning, one thing is certain

Come Wednesday morning, one thing is certain.

Half the country will be angry, disappointed, and genuinely concerned.

And what will that anger, disappointment, and genuine concern portend?

The divisiveness building over the past two presidential administrations will rise to extraordinary levels.  Arguably much, much worse than those fed by the machinations over the past nearly eight years.  

To study an ineffective Congress, one merely needs to look at how Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker of the House Pelosi colluded to deliberately withheld votes and changed long, honored procedures to ram through some bills, while intentionally letting contentious, though important bills lay dormant.  At a time the Democrats held both chambers, major problems (national debt, immigration, and tax reform to name a few) requiring Congressional action remained unaddressed.  Likewise, when Republicans held majorities in both chambers, Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Speakers of the House Boehner and Ryan did not force matters with the President by crafting and sending legislation to floors votes and eventually the President.  The floor votes and potential presidential vetoes would have irrefutably demonstrated to the electorate which party really supported the interests of the nation and which was obstructionist.  As a result, the Republican majorities in both chambers failed to take up the fight to rein in a lawless president and the nation suffered.

And what will the post election anger, disappointment, and genuine concern portend? 

Regardless of which candidate claims victory, it is unlikely there will a mandate voted into either or both chambers of Congress.  Majorities (if any) will remain relatively slim, with the Senate majority currently up for grabs.  So the ineffectiveness defining recent Congresses will continue.  If anything, due to the unprecedented nature of the 2016 election, even further retrenchment is highly likely.  Ideologues from both parties will fire off combative and conflicting statements of blame.  Unsubstantiated assertions and allegations will flood the media.  All the while, important matters (national debt, immigration, tax reform, national security, education) will get no better and may even become worse.

And half of the nation will continue to be angry, disappointed, and genuinely concerned. 

Once in office, the newly elected president may continue to unlawfully expand employment of executive orders as a form of governance.  Whether Congress or the courts will rein in  such lawlessness is doubtful based on recent history.  And with an eight member Supreme Court, contentious judicial nominations will become major illustrations of government dysfunction.

Legal challenges of all sorts will be levied, again, regardless of who claims victory.  Hearings, lawsuits, FOIA requests, etc. will proliferate.

All the while, half of the electorate will be angry, disappointed, and genuinely concerned.

Perhaps, just perhaps, a shift will occur because of this anger, disappointment, and concern.  Maybe some elected officials will look to the 2016 election and see that it as a wake up signal, regardless of political leanings.  It is possible the enough elected officials may wake up and recognize that they must tackle, by some form of of compromise, the serious matters facing our country.  One good start: instead of omnibus appropriation and spending bills, separate bills (as intended) will be legislated and sent to the president for signature.  Maybe enough elected officials will see the need to remove riders and amendments, so that basic matters can be addressed.  Maybe enough elected officials will recognize the time is right to once and for all tackle wasteful pork in the national budget.   Maybe, just maybe, the word compromise will enter the daily vocabulary.

If not, by then the entire electorate will be justifiably angry, disappointed, and genuinely concerned.  And that would portend a legitimate national crisis.