Sunday, January 11, 2009

I Endorse Pelosi Rule And This Graphic From A Conservative Blog

Anything that increases Nancy Pelosi's ability to dominate American politics makes me a happy man. So I liked this picture from KRyanJames at The Next Right that depicts her current position, especially as relates to the Blue Dogs:
If you're interested in seeing how Pelosi is consolidating power, the post itself is worth a read.

In any event, I'd guess that a more Speaker-controlled House is a good thing for the progressive movement in the long run, for the same reason that the filibuster is a problem for progressivism overall. The fewer places there are where big legislation can get caught in bottlenecks, the better it is for the people who want to pass big new social programs. That's why Europe, with its less bottlenecky political systems, has a much more generous welfare state than we do. Sure, we will complain about complained about iron-fisted majoritarianism when Republicans come to power DeLay was in charge. But alternation between iron-fisted Democratic Rule and iron-fisted Republican rule probably gets you farther to the left faster, just because well-designed universal social programs end up being very popular once they're in place. Even if you've got an iron fist, you touch that Third Rail and it's gonna kill you.

3 comments:

low-tech cyclist said...

Boy, what a buncha whiners. Haven't they heard that "Elections have consequences"?

That was what they were saying after Bush won the 2004 election by 2.5%, when the GOP had 55 seats in the Senate and 232, I believe, in the House.

Obama just won by 7%, we've got 59 seats in the Senate, and 257 in the House.

Elections have consequences.

America, bitches. Love it or leave it!

Anonymous said...

That's why Europe, with its less bottlenecky political systems, has a much more generous welfare state than we do.

There's also the stock explanation that Europeans historically didn't suffer from the crippling fear that welfare programs would benefit black people. ("Historically" may be doing a lot of work there.)

inglesse -- the language that will be spoken in the UK under the new One World Europe black helicopter regime

Anonymous said...

That was me. What a mismal omission!