Bacon's Rebellion

Who Cares?

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
in

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

FROM THE SOAPBOX

A New York Times news analysis outlines the sad condition of government and politics in the modern United States.

Over the last two years, the Republican-led House of Representatives was essentially dysfunctional. A Speaker was ousted and a long, bitter fight ensued before a replacement Speaker could be elected. Along the way, the country narrowly escaped defaulting on its debt payments and skirted government shutdowns over disagreements on the budget. On those critical issues, both Speakers had to turn to Democrats for the necessary votes. Hardly anything of substance was accomplished as Republicans fought with each other for most of the two years. Several Republican members publicly decried the dysfunction and chaos and predicted that the party would pay a political price.

In the end, they did not pay a political price. It seems that the American people have returned enough Republicans to the House for the party to again have a slim majority. Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina, and chairman of the House Financial Services committee and interim Speaker, had this observation on the prospect that his party would retain control of the House: It’s “proof that the American people don’t pay attention to the details of our politics.” He then corrected himself and said, “It’s probably less about paying attention and more about not caring.”

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15 responses to “Who Cares?”

  1. Jim Loving Avatar
    Jim Loving

    Yes Dick, in 2025, if Americans want to understand the state of the world they are living in, like I said in my post-election screed, they can look no further than the mirror in their bath room. https://medium.com/@jylterps/the-dismal-tide-dark-maga-descends-over-america-and-the-world-5e443ea80564

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Is it the American, right wing version of the Bolshevik Revolution where the govt is dismantled, rearranged and the elites sent packing?

  3. tomb Avatar
    tomb

    Or it could be that the country was paying attention and decided to reject the continuation of politics as usual and vote for change. Your analysis doesn't mention the large number of democrats from usually reliable democrat demographics (notably Black, Hispanic and Jewish voters), who voted for Trump. I doubt they jumped ship because of the failures of republican leadership.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    2024 Popular Vote:
    Harris (D) Trump (R)
    72,449,315 75,587,672

    2020 popular vote:
    Joe Biden Donald Trump
    81,282,916 votes 74,223,369 votes

    9 million less D votes for Harris than Biden
    only one million more R votes for Trump

    where did the other 8 million go?

  5. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Elect 🤡🤡🤡🤡 expect a 🎠🎡🎢

  6. SudleySpr Avatar
    SudleySpr

    And then there is that map showing where every Harris state accepts no photo ID or no ID at all. This should have been another 49-1 spanking. We still have work to do.

  7. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Suddenly, Republicans think the economy is great….
    https://www.axios.com/2024/11/13/consumer-sentiment-republican-democrat-switch

  8. Marty Chapman Avatar
    Marty Chapman

    Dick, which, if any, of the below proposals do you support:

    1. adding justices to the SCOTUS
    2. admitting DC and/or Puerto Rico to the Union as states
    3. national gun registration
    4. unlimited immigration
    5. abolishing the Electoral College

  9. Clarity77 Avatar
    Clarity77

    Dick, as to why they don't care perhaps you could enlighten us as to the appalling literacy statistics in the attached data which has happened over now decades controlled by your leftist cronies in the NEA, Department of Education along with universities in charge of ed schools. How are people going to care if they cannot read.

    Let's start with the basics as to the health of a democracy as Jefferson clearly warned being dependent on "an informed and educated citizenry. And as a defender of government welfare it would further be useful if you can for instance defend how low literacy rates are in that population.

    https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2022-2023

  10. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Did not have The Onion buying InfoWars on my bingo card…

  11. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Here is one to care about Mr. Dick! Any thoughts? Fire house primary this Saturday for the Virginia GA Senate District number 10 in Loudoun County. Winner faces the donkey candidate on January 7th, 2025. Prize? Who controls the state Senate next year. Who knows about this? Almost no one. I bet Madame Lucas is sweating bullets. Blue brick wall might come tumbling down.
    https://wjla.com/news/elections/special-primary-loudoun-county-virginia-state-senate-32-race-senator-suhas-subramanyam-seat-republicans-campaigns-ommair-butt-tumay-harding-tushar-dode-rafi-khaja

  12. Randy Huffman Avatar
    Randy Huffman

    I didn't like alot of the finger pointing and grandstanding by a few, which BTW would have happened by some on the Left (think Squad) had control been in Dem hands. But remember, it would not have mattered anyway because President Biden would not have signed any bills coming out of the House that did not have bi partisan support.

  13. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    Dick, as a person who, like more than 19,000 other residents of North Carolina, voted for a write-in candidate, I could not, in good conscience, vote for Donald Trump, even though I liked some, but not all, of what he did during his first term. Likewise, I could not vote for Harris, based on many factors, including, but not limited to, her radical policies published in 2019 (which she did not specifically repudiate), her position as Biden's key partner in an administration that pushed inflation higher with massive spending bills and that effectively opened the borders and encouraged illegal immigration, her refusal to submit to any tough interviews, her rambling (a/k/a word salad) discussion of issues and her refusal to address the failure of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to get FOCA passed. So long as I wanted to continue to look myself in the face, I had to vote for someone else.

    Ordinary people, many of whom voted split tickets or even straight Democratic tickets in the past, voted, with or without holding their noses, for Trump. In a democracy, citizens of age are supposed to vote for whomever they want. But that is unacceptable to many self-appointed white elites. They are our First Estate. They believe they have the right to scold those members of the Third Estate who voted against the will and direction of their betters.

    It's extremely disrespectful to tell anyone how to vote. But people, left and right, do it anyway. But the greater hypocrite is the person who both decries the risk to democracy and tells others how to vote.

  14. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    Dick, you focus on the Repub dysfunction of the last two years, but no mention of the dysfunction of the Dems in the two years prior caused by also holding a very narrow majority. While Pelosi eventually dragooned the Dems into passing most of Biden's legislation (for which the Repubs should be grateful, the excess spending/stimulation drove the inflation that tipped the scales last week) it was nip and tuck, back and forth with small groups torpedoing bill after bill to get what they wanted. Dems dramatic failure to function contributed to Repub Younkin et als win here in Virginia.

    I was hoping for divided government no matter who won the presidency, to restrain all of their worst impulses. A very narrow House majority will likely do the trick too.

  15. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “Legislators should cap drug prices so that companies can’t charge Americans substantially more than Europeans pay”

    From Trump’s nominee for HHS…

    Will we hear the screams of “price fixing!!” from the Right this time… or as Dick indicates, will it be more “Who cares…”?

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