Politics in America: Green Acres or Jurassic Park

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I read a small blurb on the internet yesterday in which a political commentator succinctly described the differences in how the two political parties in the United States operate.  The Republican Party, the writer noted, is controlled by their base, an insane mob of about forty percent of the American electorate  who support Donald Trump with a religious fervor and have a whole host of attendant issues such as racism, homophobia, a need for male dominance in society, and the "right" of everyone in society who looks and behaves like them to be well-armed and unfettered by any form of government regulation.  The "leaders" of the Republican Party, the writer noted, do not lead but instead cower in fear before the rabble.

The Democrats, on the other hand, lead from the top down.  Their leaders are older, grayer, and more skilled in the ways of genteel traditions and polite society - and they are attached to their power positions within the party and the government with the strength of barnacles who require sandblasting to be removed from the hulls of ships.  The leaders of the Democratic Party do not fall all over themselves making way for the political youngsters to advance through the system and learn the ropes of how to govern and get things done.  They instead tend to prattle on about the benefits of "institutional knowledge," all the while denying the next generation opportunities to get elected to office and gain any of that "institutional knowledge" for themselves.   Getting things done is the purview of the codgers.  Many Democratic politicians will pass on a gold retirement watch and instead wait patiently for a toe tag.

So we are stuck with a situation in which the Republican Speaker of the House and his committee chairmen resemble the cast of "Green Acres," and the Democratic leaders lumber about as though they are starring in yet another remake of "Jurassic Park."

While the lines between the hillbillies and the dinosaurs don't split perfectly between the parties, in general they are very real.  Yes, the Republicans in the Senate are saddled with a fog-bound Mitchosaurus, and he is proclaiming loudly that he will finish his term.  But the Trump lunatics don't like Mitch, and him winning another term in 2026 seems highly unlikely.

And speaking of dinosaurs, 83-year-old Nancy Pelosi said this week that she will seek another term in Congress.  The only reason that she seemed to verbalize for refusing to leave Jurassic Park had something to do with controlling Trump, though he would have no chance of ever carrying her posh, blue-blood, bigly Democratic district in San Francisco.  Nancy is stuffing her own ego.    That's what dinosaurs do.

The Republicans need to focus of cleaning their own house, perhaps with a flamethrower, and the Democrats need to open theirs up to a little more actual democracy.  Right now politics in America feels like it is the worst of two worlds.