I keep seeing stories and comments about the holdup of several very important bills in the US Senate because of Senator Manchin. That is, just this one Senator, representing a rather small state, is holding up many important bills. Many commentators conclude that such a situation proves that the US system is broken.
I disagree. The system is working exactly how it was designed. As I have stated before the men who created the United States purposely created it so that its federal government would be weak. They were all frightened that one of their number would set themselves up as a king so they created a system to prevent that.
It worked for a time when the American ruling class were all pulling in the same direction but when that changed the system was helpless to prevent the country from tearing itself apart, leading to a long, bloody and painful civil war.
That national trauma lead to the ruling class again agreeing on the direction of the country, with the only disagreements being on how to move in that direction. Beginning with Ronald Reagan that agreement began to break down until the US finds itself in a situation where the ruling class and American society has broken into two distinct, mutually hostile factions.
One of the results of that is what is happening in the US Senate.
I do not know for certain what is going to happen in the US but I would remind you that the last time the US split as badly as it is splitting now it lead to war. That may not happen this time because the split is not confined to definable states but then again that might just mean that if war does break out it will be a messy and confusing one.
1 comment:
I remember a co-worker who had majored is US history saying that he could not understand how the US Gov't could function.
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