Big Senate, Little House

Posted on | October 17, 2013 | 34 Comments

by Smitty

A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportional. The older you got, the wiser you got, the further up the food chain you got. Thus (I was a young squid at the time) by the time one made Admiral, one must really Know. What’s. Up. The hard reality that I was wrong, and one must trust (but verify) one’s leadership dawned on me in my 20s. And the most ultimately wrong human being in American political history may have been Woodrow Wilson.

A century after that famous knob Woodrow, we have the spectacle of the Senate Majority/Minority leaders wheeling and dealing, passing legislation, and running it through the House in the crap-through-goose fashion (which metaphor holds on multiple levels) in order to prevent “default” and “reopen” government. How is that not a direct refutation of Article I, Section VII? The Senate, directly elected since the 17th Amendment, is a Little House, isn’t it?

But the House is more of a Big Senate, since its original function of representing the people was weakened by freezing its size in 1910. The people, if asked, freely whine about how Congress is broken, and the country is on the wrong track. Congress is doing a great job of representing the one party that matters, Progressives, and putting on biennial election spectacles featuring two “opposing” parties. The individual egos in question may chafe each other, sure. Once they’ve mouthed their oath to a document they (as a whole) no longer serve with any real fidelity, though, they return to the business of expanding Leviathan, their true task.

The question of “what to do?” hangs in the air. Of the two “opposing” parties, the Republicans had seemed slightly less infested with the Progressive plague. The GOP, as the Progressives carved up the American people into constituencies the last century, had staked out the more patriotic, historically minded sectors. Thus, the Tea Party opted to try to work with the GOP to do something, anything, to stave off what sure seems like pending collapse:

No proper budgets since BHO was elected.
No effective debt ceiling, and it isn’t clear whether sequestration retains any meaning either.
No stopping horrendous legislation like #ObamaCare, a stillborn Progressive child, born breech, and likely to take the mother with it, economically speaking, next year.

The Big Senate and Little House squabble over punctuation, pile up reams of unread legislation, then ram it through in the dark, unread. How is it that these Congresscritters’ tongues don’t explode in their heads when they swear in? And when reformers of the Cruz/Paul/Lee ilk do manage to get into office, they are viewed as insurgents. Guitarists at a drum camp. Cattle ranchers on a vegan commune. Once legislation is written, which one might be tempted to think finalizes matter, you have legions of un-elected bureaucrats who write regulations atop them. So not only have the Big Senate and Little House drifted together in terms of function, they’ve drifted away from their original purpose of crafting the rules by which the country operates. To the point that the IRS can be used to suppress the Tea Party with impunity. Strangely silent on the case: the Republican Party. On the one hand, it would be hard to be impartial, as a party, on the topic. On the other hand, preventing those meddling Tea Partiers from reforming anything serves Holy Progress.

So if you’re in the 87% of the people in the Rasmussen survey linked above who think this is total hooey, what to do? The Tea Party and the GOP are like a couple that is only slightly less dysfunctional together. This is because the GOP elite are sold out to Wilson’s Progress, and the Tea Party clings bitterly to quaint notions, e.g. the Republican platform. The Tea Party is clearly “extreme” in this.

The most likely remedy to all this is to continue electing Tea Partiers to Congress on the Republican ticket. This is going to mean RINO targeting, e.g. Lindsey Graham. Nancy Mace is going to need your support. Only by claiming some RINO scalps is the message going to take on meaning, and the power to unwind Wilson’s silliness can be built. This will not be a quick fix. The situation may be so far gone that a broader economic collapse could be well advanced at this point. Who knows anything, in an era of politicized numbers from the BLS?

It boils down to will. The Big Senate/Little House problem will be addressed by patient people doing the hard work of staying engaged over years, repeating the good, criticizing the bad, and preserving the actual history of what’s gone on. I say this as a note to self. During the shutdown, I was halfway ready to walk away from this noise entirely. I’ve certainly gained new understanding of those who do give up on politics entirely. Woodrow, you were wrong, and we’ve got to attack your wrongness head on (apply directly to the forehead) until it’s undone.

Category: Congress

Comments

34 Responses to “Big Senate, Little House”

MrEvilMatt
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:48 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/1E0CmF9AZI
Lockestep1776
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/KKMS4Bz4vU
CHideout
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/dWITnrdnwb
Citzcom
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/LKHA2g4IUN
jwbrown1969
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/KkP9sHfZNA
jwbrown1969
October 17th, 2013 @ 7:49 am

Big Senate, Little House: by Smitty A quaint notion I had in my youth was that wisdom and age were proportiona… http://t.co/d5KjvKV5dm
rtlewis777
October 17th, 2013 @ 8:00 am

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/e3yNEH2xQa
Quartermaster
October 17th, 2013 @ 8:27 am

The GOP was created as a progressive party and engaged in crony capitalism from its beginning. The Dems were the conservative party, but they saw that the future was progressive and so they became what the GOP was and out did it on every front. The GOP is just a crony capitalist party now that goes along to get along.
What you see in the two clown posse parties is the future for them. They rule over a degraded population that wants what they want, will insist on getting it, but will also insist on not living with the consequences.
I don’t think the USA has 10 years of life left as a political entity.
Sandstorm1776
October 17th, 2013 @ 8:27 am

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/aGgfVxSL2Y
Patronage and the Theft of the American Dream – Updated | Dead Republican Party (DeRP)
October 17th, 2013 @ 8:48 am

[…] I’ll not add a very large update to this by I do recommend you go read Smitty’s article “Big Senate, Little House” over at The Other […]
librarygryffon
October 17th, 2013 @ 9:01 am

My daughter had 1776 on in the car this morning. I was struck by how apt “Sit down, John” was even today. Just have Cruz or Paul as Adams, and for “Independency” substitute, well, Independency. For most of those yelling “Sit down, John” just think the current GOP establishment.
Sad, 230+ years, and nothing has really changed.
JenniferBarket
October 17th, 2013 @ 9:33 am

Well said: Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/BB21fUmKrG
NGrandquis
October 17th, 2013 @ 9:33 am

RT @rtlewis777: Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/e3yNEH2xQa
Evi L. Bloggerlady
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:01 am

Little house? Is that like little head?

It is sure not “Little House on the Prairie.”
Evi L. Bloggerlady
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:03 am

Human beings as depicted back in Greek plays have not evolved one iota to today.

Except that liberals who engage in incest don’t even have the shame Odipus had when he found out.
librarygryffon
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:05 am

Oh, yes. Human nature hasn’t changed at all. It just seemed more of a “history repeating itself” than usual.
politsoutherner
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:27 am

Big Senate, Little House : The Other McCain http://t.co/lnN7TsY8KY
Wombat_socho
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:44 am

LOLWUT? What part of the original Republican party had anything to do with progressivism? How is the abolition of slavery progressive, or the reliance on tariffs as a revenue source?
Wombat_socho
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:45 am

In some ways it’s similar to “Little Mosque On The Prairie”.
JoyKeller1
October 17th, 2013 @ 10:51 am

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/GclvbMhqqs
RMNixonDeceased
October 17th, 2013 @ 11:03 am

“Little house? Is that like little head?

It is sure not “Little House on the Prairie.”” — Evi L. Bloggerlady http://t.co/kUoDp9pwDM
McGehee
October 17th, 2013 @ 11:04 am

“They say age comes with wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.”

And sometimes police wind up digging up the back yard where age used to live, and find wisdom’s skeletal remains buried under the garden shed.
RMNixonDeceased
October 17th, 2013 @ 11:04 am

“In some ways it’s similar to “Little Mosque On The Prairie”.” — Wombat_socho http://t.co/d1wJBAl9zM
Quartermaster
October 17th, 2013 @ 12:29 pm

IT was not called progressivism back then. But take a look at what they stood for under Fremont and Lincoln as compared to Roosevelt, and the similarities are too strong to ignore.
Eastwood Ravine
October 17th, 2013 @ 1:14 pm

I’m reminded of this article from 2012:

http://www.hollywoodrepublican.net/2012/04/the-death-of-a-republic/

“During those 200 years, these nations, focus on America, always progressed through the following remarkable, consistent, repeatable, and stubborn sequence:

From any form of bondage to some form of spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage, audacity, valor and bravery; From that field of courage to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; From freedom to sustaining wealth; From wealth and abundance to self gratification and complacency; From self gratification, complacency to apathy and lethargy; From lethargy to dependence and reliance; From reliance back into bondage.”
Louie Gohmert is in Trouble with John McCain, You Guys | Regular Right Guy
October 17th, 2013 @ 3:33 pm

[…] Big Senate, Little House […]
smitty
October 17th, 2013 @ 5:09 pm

No, the Progressives had their roots with Dewey &c later, and split off from the Republicans under Teddy.
Quartermaster
October 17th, 2013 @ 5:44 pm

You can believe that if you wish. I won’t argue with you.
Professor_Why
October 17th, 2013 @ 6:02 pm

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/9nE5wu3Bnw
thatMrGguy
October 17th, 2013 @ 6:53 pm

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/6EIr67JX9y
Wombat_socho
October 18th, 2013 @ 9:17 am

It’s historical fact. The Progressive movement started in the late 19th century, and TR’s “Square Deal” was all about its adoption by the GOP. Before that, the GOP was the antithesis of “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” after Fremont and Lincoln championed abolition and Union. Belief doesn’t enter into it.
Quartermaster
October 18th, 2013 @ 3:42 pm

It’s a matter of historical judgment. I see it in embryo in the founding of the GOP. Once, more, I will not argue with you on the matter. You are welcome to believe what you wish.
JadedByPolitics
October 18th, 2013 @ 7:51 pm

Big Senate, Little House http://t.co/zlUIi6zY8w #TEAParty RISING!
FMJRA 2.0: Day Late & A Dollar Short : The Other McCain
October 20th, 2013 @ 11:58 am

[…] Big Senate, Little House […]