‘Overriding Democracy’
It has been said that the current congressional carnival is a surgical procedure that must be performed to restore the nation’s health and vigor.
This is the first time in all of history that a great nation has chosen to emasculate itself before the entire world to regain virility. But the operation is going according to plan. Already the President has been effectively neutered, and may even be impeached.
Our hydra-headed Congress now is in control--to paraphrase Al Haig. Asserting the self-interest wisdom of its 250 million self-centered constituents, it has gridlocked itself on all major domestic issues. But it has had one big success. It has wrested control of foreign policy from the President. Its consequent foreign policy achievement has been to protect the Soviet Union’s Central American intervention from U.S. interference.
If this constitutes a restoration of our nation’s virility, impotence must have virtues that I’ve never imagined. But maybe our new headless vigor and Lilliputian posturing will scare the Russians out of their wits.
KENNETH PARRATT
San Diego
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
