We! The People Webzine: Congress Changed? by Ron McBride

Congress Changed?

by Ron McBride
January 30, 2007

Back when. When I was in high school, we Democrats enjoyed having a member in the White House; Congress was a much friendlier place than it is today. The representatives knew each other because they had to stand around waiting for their turn to vote. Democrats and Republicans became friends, they learned to work together, and, of course, the inevitable deal making took place.

Foremost deal maker of the time Lyndon Johnson became president in my junior year with the death of JFK. Johnson knew nearly everyone in the House, and was able to work closely with them to get legislation passed.

There was not the animosity between the two parties that there is today. Oh, don't get me wrong, come election time they would come out fighting tooth and nail, but, when in chambers, they conducted themselves as ladies and gentlemen, with a few exceptions.

Just when the change came I am not sure but I feel that when electronic voting was introduced for Congress, around the time of Ronald Reagan becoming president, was when the alienation began.

Reagan and his neocon activists, lead by Newt Gingrich, surged to the fore, creating scandals out of thin air, things like the House Bank and the House Post Office which had management problems, became fodder for the Republican neocons. Coupled with the mainstream press, they managed to blow small management issues into national scandals. This undermined not only the Democratic Party but the House itself.

Meanwhile shortsighted Democratic leaders continued their efforts to restrict debate and deliberations, causing more controversy. They mouthed the word "reform" but never attempted to change the good ole boy power structures and systems they had built in Washington. These stood in the way of reform. No one was willing to give up power.

The Republicans created their Contract with America out of smoke and mirrors but it caught the attention of the voting public and Republicans made historic gains in not only the House but in the Senate as well. They stole the Democratic "Reform" buzz word and with a few cosmetic changes called it a success. But they didn't touch the electronic voting or the C-Span coverage of sessions. Nor did they reduce the power of committees that were like road blocks along the path that bills introduced to congress had to maneuver through.

C-Span and electronic voting was a forerunner of the introduction of the modern information age which is today continuing to expand via the Internet.

The four years from the 1996 election of the Republican House, until the 2000 election of the George W. Bush as President, were nothing compared to what the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent Legislature in History had become, a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes as easily as they took a breath.

"There is no native criminal class except Congress," Mark Twain said. What he meant as a joke became reality over the past six years, 2000-2006. During these years, they have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, adopted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semi-permanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. Congress sunk to a new low.

Today, at least up to the November '06 election, Congress was where power was worshipped and where principles were buried. A perfect breeding ground for corruption. The Republican Legislators became nothing but another arm of the worst administration to ever arrive in Washington, DC. An administration that has attempted to destroy the Constitution of this fair land, to sell off the Federal Government not just to the highest bidder, but to the biggest GOP contributors. Leading this criminal conspiracy is Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney became the power in Washington. Bush, never a mental genius to start with, let Cheney and his cohorts like Donald Rumsfelt run the federal government like a drug king pin runs a celebration, passing around the goody bowl for all their contributors to take free samples, and, if more contributions were forth coming, gave no bid contracts in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to the tune of billions of dollars.

Now you might ask, what in the hell the Democratic party was doing during this time?

From 1996 until late 2003, they flopped and floundered, letting the Republicans spit in their faces. The old system of rule by consensus, became a dictatorial one party rule. They did away with congressional procedures, and politicos in the back room deal became the mode, returning to what was so prevalent 100 years ago.

Procedures like holding hearings on a bill before it was voted on, was ditched, while Karl Rove kept his well-oiled legislative machine rolling the bills out for Bush's signature. This is like an employer who, come payday, hands the employee a blank check and tells him to just fill in what he wants.

If the Democrats managed to get some backbone, and force through something - such as the hearings on the Patriot Act which the Republicans tried to schedule on a Friday at 9am when Congress wasn't in session - then Rove's henchmen would do something never heard of, like the Republican chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr. of the House Judiciary Committee simply getting up and walking out of the hearing, turning off the lights and disconnecting the microphones as he went. A total disregard for fellow members of the opposition party, transformed into a total disregard for the Constitution. America was on its way to becoming a dictatorship.

But in 2003, a voice from the northern wilderness was heard, calling on Americans to standup, unite, and take back their party and their country. Howard Dean, governor of the small New England state of Vermont, announced he was running for President. When the Republicans and Democrats alike quite laughing, he announced that he was going to use an all volunteer grassroots organization. Dean called for America to win back not only the party but the country. The laughter increased. Then a funny thing happened, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who were fed up with the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress and the Bush cadre, flocked to Howard Dean, calling themselves Deaniacs. They organized, they raised funds, they got out the vote in early primaries, and Dean became a beacon to those who were sick and tired of politics as usual.

This threat to the status quo, could not be allowed to pass, mainstream media did everything in their power to destroy Dean and his campaign. They succeeded to a degree.

Dean failed to gain the nomination for President of his Party. But his dream was not forgotten, he changed the name of his group to Democracy for America, and today it's grown in influence and power, enough that Dean, with the help of the Association of State Democratic Chairs whom he promised to give annual tribute of $200,000 each, became head of the Democratic National Committee.

Once head of the DNC, Howard, true to his promise, introduced new and, for the Democrats, revolutionary methods, from a rash of web based ventures, to his 50 State Strategy, that in November 2006 translated into a monster of a win for the Democrats.

With this as a mandate and with control of both houses, the Party attempted to introduce reforms and to try correcting bad legislation passed by Bush and Rove's pet dogs. As a bold step into the future, they elected the first woman as Speaker of the House of Representatives. This was the closest that a woman has ever come to setting in the Oval Office. Nancy Pelosi of California slipped into the role as easily as other great speakers have.

But the question is: Has the Congress changed? Time, of course, will tell, but one thing is for sure, the spark introduced and now cultivated by Howard Dean has made its mark on America. Not only Dean's DFA, but other progressive organizations have sprung forth like the PDA, WeDemocrats, MoveOn and others, each working in its niche, each striving towards placing a progressive President in office and a Progressive Congress in Washington.

Congress has changed and for the better, but Bush and his cohorts have not, they still are operating as if they control all branches of government. They are staying the course, but We! the People are saying its time to Reverse the Course. It's time to stop Preaching and begin Impeaching.

Ron McBride
WeDemocrats.org
Founder & Chairman
Publisher of WE! the People online magazine
ron@wedemocrats.org

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Ron McBride is the author of numerous articles on Democracy. He is founder and Chair of WeDemocrats.org. His writings may be found at We! The People http://wedemocrats.org/wtp/wtp.htm, www.WeDemocrats.org and www.MyTown.ca/mcbride/ plus blogs such as http://www.dailykos.com:80/user/WeDemocrats and http://www.mydd.com:80/user/WeDemocrats