Restoring Congress

I’m generally not thought of as one of the extreme in the netroots—in fact many think I’m too conservative (and Illinois Review calling Fritchey and I full of hate doesn’t count in a reality based discussion) and accepting of the apparatus. Fair enough.

Generally though my differences with Markos aren’t very great in that I’m not concerned about ideological purity as much as strong candidates with backbones, but today there is one issue I really do disagree with him on:

Me, I said at the time that I wanted to see the filibuster gone. Now Republicans will get to use it to stymie the Democratic agenda, just like opponents of civil rights used it to bottleneck important civil rights legislation in the 60s. But oh well. It is what it is.

But here’s the key — every bit of anti-minority party legislation the GOP implemented these last 12 years better be kept intact by the new Democratic leadership. Let them reap what they sowed. They deserve every humiliation they designed for those in the minority status.

And stripped of their perks, forced to fire large number of staff, shunted off to the dingiest offices on Capitol Hill, let’s hope more Republicans decide that life on K Street is more enjoyable than life in the minority.

To be fair, the above is from a post that was making fun of predictions of realignment. I have more than a passing interest in party realignment which I view as a process that is always underway–just at different rates and so the post makes a perfect point in that respect–realignment claims are seldom close to the truth that in a competitive two party system, there is always innovation to capture new voters and hence majorities are generally not stable with some exceptions of incumbency.

That said, the problem I have with what Markos said is that part of what this election was about was a rejection of systemic corruption created by the K Street Project. The insulation that the project attempted to create from the electorate and reduced accountability from it is exactly what allowed corruption to become so widespread in only 12 years.

Restoring minority rights in Congress is a good thing not because it’s good to be nice, but being fair also ensures that Democrats are held accountable. If you run on a platform of accountability, then you should practice it.

Political parties in every nation on earth have been participated in corruption and they always will. The difference in the last 12 years between usual corruption which some Democrats do and will engage in is that it wasn’t systematically incorporated into the entire system of governance as the K-Street Project did. Part of the reason it could be pulled off in the US House is that any power that the minority had was largely stripped from them. Leaving the institution as the Republicans have left it will only result in a replay of no accountability with Democrats in charge. That’s not what this election was about for those independents, disaffected Republicans and most Democrats who went to the polls.

Listening to Nancy Pelosi, she gets this and understands it. I think she understands the logic of retribution out of frustration as well, but she has promised to reject that. She does that from a position of confidence that if you run a clean and open government you might not win every fight, but you will continue winning.

Part of governing is restoring integrity to the institution even if that means being nice to people who didn’t and wouldn’t do the same. We don’t lay down and let them do anything, but we allow those willing to take part in governance to take part. Those that don’t and want to try and continue to burn down the house, they get whacked.

Oh, and Rodney Alexander gets whacked for his decision to switch parties 10 minutes before filing closed.