It's Even Worse Than It Looks

I started writing this post almost two months ago, but for some reason, I never got around to posting it until today.  The title of this post is part of the title of a book I was then reading. The rest of the title is, How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. The authors, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein provide a detailed account of where this uber-polarization got started and why we are where we are today. They squarely put the blame on the Republicans. What makes the book so powerful is that Ornstein and Mann are two of the top congressional scholars and have made their name by being scrupulously nonpartisan.

Much of what I read, I already knew in general terms, but it's the specifics and the behind the scenes maneuvers that are on one hand interesting and ingenious, but on the other hand depressing, disgusting, and down right alarming. According the book, it basically started with Newt Gingrich and the Gang of Seven. Newt came up with the idea that the only way Republicans were going to get back into control was to get the general public so disgusted with Congress that they threw out the party in power.

The idea of throwing the American under the bus by ignoring what is best for the country and blocking every move the Democrats made was his brain child. I hadn't realized it started back in the early 90's, but that maneuver was hardly enough. The book goes on to detail Newts exploits, some of which backfired, the actions of those who followed, and what the Democrats did to make things worse. I urge you to read the book for yourself, but I'll offer you one example of interesting and and alarming action.

Not too many people watch CSPAN. If you do watch as the camera pans around the room, you'll notice that just about all of the evening speeches are delivered to an empty room. That's because they are usually mundane and unimportant, given solely for the purpose of getting entered in to the congressional record. However, the camera work wasn't always thus, and it was this fact that allowed Newt to come up with an ingenious strategy.

When CSPAN first started, in order to prevent political advantages, the rules stated that the camera had to be fixed on the speaker and not pan through the audience. It occurred to Newt that this safeguard could be turned on its ear. He realized that the American public had no idea the speakers were addressing an empty room and he, along with his colleagues, began giving speeches that attacked the Democrats on all fronts.

Of course CSPAN was not watched by millions of viewers, but those who turned in saw Republicans accusing Democrats of all kinds of improper behavior and callous actions. They waited for some sort of reaction from the Democrats in the room, but had no idea that the room was empty. Not hearing any reaction or rebuttal, people came to their own conclusions about the charges being made. This went on for months until a good deal of damage was done. By the time the rule was changed to pan the camera around the room, so that viewers could see they were speaking to empty chairs, a great deal of damage was done by the unfounded and unanswered attacks.

This is indicative of many of the actions taken by the Republicans to thwart and forward progress by the administration.  Remember, these authors built their reputation as being non-partisan.  Read the book and make up your own mind.