Wednesday 20 January 2010

Breaking News On Breaking Points

The possibility of holding a Senate vote before Brown arrives just got taken off the table. Not surprising. That leaves a House vote on the Senate bill (reconciliation is a pipe dream, and has been for a while), which is looking pretty damn unlikely.

I was thinking (OK, brooding) about this a lot today, and something struck me. With the general election approaching, it is clear that whilst the Conservatives in no way deserve to win (and we most certainly don't deserve that outcome), it's very hard to see a way around the argument that Labour deserves to lose. Given the surprisingly strong Lib Dem showing in my area last time around, it's at least theoretically possible that my vote could help shore up Labour, or help knock them down (as much as one vote makes any difference to anything). I know I don't want the Conservatives in, but it's just so damn hard to try to persuade myself I want Labour to remain in power.

It's only just sunk in that this must be how Democratic voters must feel all the time. This latest round of bullshit is just that: the latest round. Publius calls it a betrayal, and it's hard to argue with that: the Democratic Party are about to abandon their signature legislation that helped them get the massive majority that apparently requires one dent for them to tell the people they can just forget it.

I've been doing this for, what, four years (two on this blog), and I'm ready to go back to believing the Atlantic Ocean plummets off a cliff a few miles west of Ireland. For those who've spent the last few decades living through this recurring nightmare, and who don't get to toy with the idea of ignoring America because they fucking live there, I just don't know how they turn on the news every day. How they live with constantly hoping that the next round of elections will bring a party that will simply maintain the hideous status quo, rather than actively making it worse.

Every Republican victory is one more nail in the coffin of anyone not rich enough to buy their own team of synchronised swimming elephants. But my God, the Democrats deserve to lose.

3 comments:

Tomsk said...

That's why two-party political systems are such a bad idea. There's nowhere to go if you think the ruling party is incompetent but are ideologically opposed to the other lot.

... which in turn is why you should take the long view on voting Lib Dem, as a hung parliament is the only hope we have of ever getting a fair voting system, and this year is the best chance for decades of it happening.

Tomsk said...

On a lighter note make your own David Cameron poster here.

SpaceSquid said...

Agreed on all counts, Tomsk.