I have heard so much blame today being handed to our current President but it isn’t his fault if the nation is suffering right now.  It’s Congress’s fault.

Congress is the sovereign body of government in the United States.  Congress calls into being American politics by writing our legislation.  And Congress has abandoned the  goal of writing good legislation.  When Congress allows lengthy bills a thousand pages long that are full of pork to pass through the legislature it hurts the nation and it’s Congress’s fault.  When they allow think tanks to draft legislation, when they fail to even read it, and then when it hurts America, it’s Congress’s fault.  When Congress interferes with the American economy by subsidizing some industries and not others it’s Congress’s fault that we have zombie companies taking up economic space that could be better occupied.  When so many small business have gone out of business forever during and after the Great Recession, it was Congress’s fault because they harmed our economy when they deregulated banking and welcomed derivatives as an innovation that has now cost trillions of dollars and millions of jobs, not to mention damaging our real estate market.  All of that has happened without apology.  That was already bad.  But now Congress is behaving worse.

Many members of Congress have supported the Mueller investigation which isn’t a proper investigation but rather a tool to harass our President and undermine our recent 2016 election.  I hear that some members of Congress want to harass President Donald Trump even more.  When members of Congress call for more harassment they cause social strife.  When they tell people that they should harass Trump’s cabinet members or his spokespersons in public, they ratchet up violence and hysteria and it’s their fault.  We should blame them.  It’s their fault because they have failed to meet their responsibility to safeguard the nation against strife.

Congress’s job isn’t to make deals, it’s to make just laws that help everyone to have security and prosperity.  Congress has abandoned those goals as a body when they allow some members to seek strife and discord and disruption.  Where is Congressional decorum?  Where is concern for what might happen if public civility is abandoned and civil limits and boundaries aren’t respected?  We’ve already seen members of the legislature shot.  Congress members calling for discord have continued to call for even more discord and violence.  I don’t blame President Trump, I blame Congress.  Shame on Congress.  Isn’t it long past time for Congress to censure these bad actors?

When Congress members disrespect American political leaders that differ with them, it hurts America.  When they waste money on investigations that never end even without finding any fault, they hurt America.  When Congress seeks chaos instead of order, when they distract themselves from projects worthy of their attention by encouraging civil discord, they hurt America.  So much blame goes to the President but it is undeserved.  The President has only a portion of power and his portion is the smaller one.

Donald Trump has been unfairly accused and persecuted.  If any one of us was treated that way would we behave with as much patience?  You may be sure that President Trump can be rude.  He has behaved rudely because of his resistance to a lockstep press committed to politically limited discourse while the nation is already in trouble.  With our nation in trouble, we need to talk about solving problems instead of creating new phoney problems.

What about the cultural phenomenon of “virtue signaling” that has forbidden so many topics that need discussion?  What about members of the press that have acted as a chorus and an instrument of the social justice movement to shut down discourse and to distort information?  Pretending to be in favor of what might be a good thing isn’t the same thing as accomplishing something good.  Virtue signallers are a bunch of mouthy narcisists that undermine American discussions about real issues.  Turning away from honest discussions about our problems has made those problems worse.

I have listened to an unrepentant call for carbon taxes when carbon dioxide doesn’t cause global warming and global warming is a tax seeking fallacy based on computer rounding errors and false temperature readings.  I have heard demands for unlimited immigration even though that would not help our economically displaced non-participating laborers or our nation’s debt or our crime problems.  I have listened to people demanding more gun restrictions.  But there’s a failure to enforce current gun regulations, for example you may recall failures to prosecute during the Fast and Furious scandal and also the failure to prosecute felons who try to buy a gun illegally.  Notice the problem of psychotropic drug prescriptions that we find in use among mass shooters, but no public alarm or restriction of those drugs which may be to blame.  Some political groups want even more gun restrictions until they undermine the Second Amendment.  And that may be their true goal.  There’s little point in federal or state legislatures writing new legislation when there’s a failure to enforce already existing gun restrictions.  Shame on these destructive efforts that are tearing our nation apart.  So many problems are Congress’s fault because members take sides instead of reaching an accord.  Congress shouldn’t indulge in fantasy based discourse and fantasy based legislation.  It’s long past time for them to choose better leadership than the terrible and destructive kind that we see today.  Shame on Congress.

Discord has happened because political people in our nation have too much power over the American economy.  That improper power politicizes every economic opportunity and short-circuits government oversight which causes corruption and bickering between factions.  That has happened because we live in the neoliberal era which is now failing to be politically or economically healthy for America.  Do you think that rampant corruption in Congress might be helped with Congressional term limits?  What if Congress members were limited to 2 terms in the House of Representatives and 1 term in the Senate?  According to the Supreme Court it will take a Constitutional Amendment to limit Congressional terms.  Maybe the struggle to do that would help Congress get back to basics instead of trying to make deals.

If you want to understand our historically important transition from healthy to sick that has been caused by engaging in bad politics you can find out all about it in Political Catsup with Economy Fries available at Amazon.com.