Politics of fear and hatred

The onslaught of TV political ads has begun, and they are communicating much fear and hatred of Obama and liberals.

My analysis is that this plays into the hands of the political class in Washington, which wants to keep the electorate divided and polarized. This is so that the electorate will not get together and force changes in how Washington works, because those changes would greatly reduce the power and riches of the Washington political class, and lessen the choke hold that Washington has on the rest of the country.

The other six candidates in AL06 have declined to make express comment on my analysis and continue on with their message to the voters that "your enemy is Obama and the Democrats."

The other six candidates think Congress will start to work again if the Republicans win the Senate, and the Republicans will get their way.

Recent years have demonstrated an immense amount of "obstructionism", and extreme responses by the "obstructed" side to overcome the "obstruction." Witness the use of "budget reconciliation" by the Democrats to get The Affordable Care Act passed, in order to get around the filibuster rule. Then further witness the change that the Democrats made to the filibuster rule last November so that only a majority of the Senate would be needed to approve Presidential appointees, which the Republicans were allegedly "obstructing." (This is referred to as the "nuclear option.")

I do not see 2015 or 2016 bringing about a lessening of adamant "obstructing" or of extreme response by the other side to try to defeat the "obstructing."

Given the escalation in hyper-partisanship, I would expect, if the Republicans win the Senate, the Democrats would pursue "obstruction" by means of the Presidential veto over legislation, which requires a two thirds vote of both houses to overcome.

I don't see how our happy "repeal and replace" warriors in the 6th Congressional district are going to succeed in the face of Presidential vetoes by President Obama.

The day after election day in November, the war for the Presidency in 2016 will get underway in earnest, and an important battlefield in that war will be Congress. It will, it seems to me, be just plain "no holds barred" in the conduct of the war for the 2016 Presidency, and Congress will be kaput in 2015 and 2016, just as I say it has been for upwards of ten years.

Our happy "repeal and replace" warriors might find this discussion informative (from the blog of Joseph H. Boyett, Ph.D., author of more than 18 books on leadership and politics including Getting Things Done in Washington: Lessons for Progressives from Landmark Legislation).