A DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT
by J. F. Kelly

The One Republic, CA
llyJ/20071026KellyDysfunctional.html
Oct 26 2007

The most recent Reuters/Zogby poll on the subject revealed that
Americans continued to lose confidence in their federal government
and in the competence of their elected leaders. Fully two-thirds
of respondents believe that their country is on the wrong track,
a remarkable expression of pessimism regarding the future.

Support for President George W. Bush continues to plummet, sinking
to 24% from 29%. But even at that lowly level, it remains more than
twice as high as the 11% approval rating that Congress received.

Democrats assumed control of Congress with a promise to change things
in Washington. Things have changed all right but mostly for the
worse. We are well into the new fiscal year and, as of this writing,
none of the dozen annual spending bills has been passed. Judicial and
other nominations have been stalled. Medicare and social security
funding problems remain unaddressed. Illegal immigration remains
out of control while liberal, activist judges and local politicians
obstruct enforcement measures. The Alternate Minimum Tax, a creature
of our bizarre tax system, threatens to engulf the entire middle
class while Democrats try to find new taxes that could compensate
for it. J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive
who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident
of Coronado, California. This Congress, at its current pace, could
set a new record for incompetence. It devotes most of its effort
to posturing, jousting with the Executive Branch, criticizing the
war, holding hearings of interest to relatively few Americans and
little related to their most pressing problems, pandering to special
interests, travel boondoggles, campaigning for reelection and crafting
meaningless, symbolic resolutions. An example of the latter and an
illustration of another clumsy intrusion into foreign policy was the
resolution drafted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee regarding
genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans against the Armenians nearly a
century ago. This resolution serves no purpose today except to pander
to some of the million and a half or so Armenian Americans.

But it greatly angered Turkey, an important ally and a rare Islamic
democracy whose cooperation is critical to most American military
operations in the Middle East and especially in Iraq. This is not a
trivial matter, whatever one’s views on the war in Iraq, because it
impacts directly upon the safety and support of American troops.

Turkish leaders, who bear no more responsibility for sins committed a
century ago than our own current leaders bear for the sins of slavery,
reacted with predictable anger. President Bush had asked that Congress
not take this provocative, unnecessary action. That, of course, was
reason enough for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent
Democrats to proclaim support for this counterproductive piece of
mischief. It is another in a long list of examples of putting hatred
of George W. Bush ahead of the country’s well-being and its military
operations in time of war. It is disgraceful and irresponsible conduct
on the part of representatives who were not elected to conduct foreign
policy. Meanwhile, Mr. Bush joined members of Congress in another
symbolic act, that of bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal on the
Dalai Lama. Some may be tempted to liken this to the resolution on the
Armenian genocide because it greatly angered the Chinese who regard
the Dalai Lama as a separatist seeking Tibetan independence from China
(which invaded that tiny Himalayan nation in 1951). But the comparison
is not valid. There is a difference between ancient history and current
events and, while Turkey is now a democratic ally, China is still a
repressive Communist dictatorship which still attempts to impose its
will by threats and by force. The values that we share with China
are mainly economic. The Executive and Legislative branches of our
federal government have become mired in a state of dysfunction and
government is simply not serving the best interests of the republic or
its people. There is, to be sure, nothing wrong with healthy political
rivalry and debate, but the current state of relations between these
branches of government goes well beyond that and it harms our national
image. The nation is losing any semblance of consensus or compromise
on most important issues and conditions seem to be getting worse. If
unchecked, this political and ideological polarization will continue
to feed on itself and hasten our decline as a great power as other
growing nations with more unity of purpose and national consensus
emerge. Americans desperately need transformational leadership which
will help heal the divisions and bring Americans closer together for
the good of the nation. Who among the current field of candidates
will provide it? Voters need to be challenging each of them to tell
us how they propose to do it. The answers need to contain more
than platitudes.

CRO copyright 2007 J. F. Kelly, Jr. J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy
Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military
subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California.