New Year, New Congress, Same old Crap

Today the 112th Congress will be seated.  The Republican party rode a wave of popularity into the Capitol, based mostly around vitriolic rhetoric, and a governing principle of doing anything that is opposite what the Democrats wanted.  Some folks think this is a good thing, some folks think it's a bad thing.  Me, I think it's wholly idiotic.  When given the opportunity to legislate throughout 2010, the GOP came off as needlessly antagonistic, and as obstructionists.  This tact is rapidly leading to a wholesale split in the Republican party, which, theoretically could birth a third party, but will most likely result in a Federal Government with little to no popular support.

The wave of newly elected Congress-people will immediately be faced with a couple of realities.  First, and foremost, they'll find out that as freshman, they really don't have any power to do any of the things that they promised their constituents that they would do.  They'll realize that as freshman, their primary responsibility is to sit on the bench in the back of the chamber, and vote the way their leadership tells them to vote.  They will, quite promptly, forget the promises they made during their campaigns, as they endeavour to discover what it is they are actually supposed to be doing.  The next thing that they'll realize is that in Congress, nothing is quite as it seems.  They will find that that spending bill that they told their constituents that they would adamantly oppose is attached to a bill that provides additional funding to our troops over seas, and to the Veterans Administration.  No Congress-person wants to be accused of not supporting our troops...and, so, they'll vote in favor of unrelated legislation to avoid the impression of non-support.  Before they know it, their campaign promises of no earmarks will develop into a "what's in it for me" attitude, where they slide in whatever ear marks they can for their home state.

In the meantime, the Nation will be watching.  There are a lot of expectations for this Congress, and a number of those expectations are needed.  The Country needs to get its fiscal house in order, and this Congress has promised to do this.  President Obama has already shown signs of moving towards the center, in an attempt to work with the Congress to achieve economical success.  If the GOP leadership persists in its anti-Democrat stance and rhetoric, it won't take the left long to paint the right as obstructionists who are more concerned about the upper-class than the middle or lower-classes.

The left and right wing of Congress is necessary to the continued success of this country.  A difference in ideas is what a bicameral legislature is based on.  Those ideas should be debated by different minded people, in an attempt to hash out the best solutions to the largest issues.  Political grand-standing by either party needs to be eliminated.  Congress-people need to be more concerned with getting their jobs done than with getting relected at the end of their terms.

Good luck to the 112th Congress of the United States of America.