The Powerless Teacher

Mom would say they’re acting like kindergarten kids in Congress and she would be right. The embarrassing theatrics Republican and Democratic representatives put on over the past three weeks are really more reminiscent of a kid’s game than a demonstration of responsible politics for the good of the American people.

The wild bunch finally managed to pull together just in time to prevent the world’s largest economy from going bankrupt. The responsible conservatives in the House won out over the bullheaded radical populists. So it may be said that in a room full of unruly kids, President Obama prevailed as the adult teacher in charge, and he truly is. But he’s also a teacher with no power.

Obama may have prevailed; his signature accomplishment, health care reform, survived the weeks of wrangling and emerged unscathed. But the fact that the newly-discovered unity came about due to an unsatisfactory temporary solution also shows that Obama’s hope that Congress might have learned in the process to avoid such a predicament in the future will remain unfulfilled.

A Bad Compromise

Mom would say it will all happen again — and she would be right. The U.S. Treasury secretary will be allowed to take on new debt only up until the beginning of next February and the government will be funded only through mid-January. It’s a bad compromise that doesn’t solve any problems; it only puts off a decision to a future date — at which time the old shell game begins anew. Americans call it “kicking the can down the road.”

The game of kick-the-can will, in all probability, soon restart. Democrats and Republicans are supposed to agree on reforms for funding the government. That’s according to the plan. But anyone who believes they will be successful probably also believes in Santa Claus.

After Christmas at the latest, the battles will begin to escalate and then it will all be about how to prevent a government shutdown again. Then, one month later, the next debate about a looming bankruptcy will be on the agenda.

In Washington, the last crisis is always the next crisis and it has been that way since 2009 and Obama’s election to the presidency. His ambitious plan to overcome the deep divisions in U.S. society have, in a way, deepened the rift and brought the structural problem of a dysfunctional parliamentary system to the surface.

The Tea Party Provides the Shock and Awe

The tea party got its start shortly after Obama’s election and has since become the greatest domestic political problem in many decades. The tea party and its representatives were able to treat the entire nation to a demonstration of shock and awe for weeks on end. They are ideologues uninterested in compromise. They are like problem children, unimpressed by the words of teacher Obama. His pleas for reason and common sense are simply ignored.

With their unprecedented blackmail attempts, the tea party has succeeded in convincing most Americans that Republicans are a hopelessly fractious group of troublemakers no longer capable of governing reasonably. For a nation based on the two-party system, that can only be bad news.

Is there a solution? A multiple-party system patterned on European democracies would be one solution to end the permanently ongoing confrontation between Democrats and Republicans. To hope that such a solution could be accepted in the United States, however, is a pipe dream. It’s as unattainable as the hope that the recently-concluded armistice over the budget could serve as a lesson for the two parties. It was definitely not instructive to the tea party; they have already promised to continue their fight regardless of the cost.

Mom’s orders would be: OK, you kids! Behave! Again she would be right; and again, her orders would —.as usual — be ignored.