100 days of futility

The first 100 days of the new Democratic Congress has shown promise, but this country did not elect them to produce promises, we elected them to produce change and so there is no real sign that any change is coming.

The war in Iraq is changing, but for the worse. Not only is Congress making no progress in extracting us from that quagmire, they were unable to stop Bush from thumbing his nose at them and accelerating the carnage. Our losses have gone from 50 per month to 80, and at the rate we are going this month we will lose 140 to a war that Bush claims is “showing progress.”

Congress has passed bills that sound nice, but not in a form that has been able to get even one of them to the desk of the president who will likely veto them, and not one with enough votes to override that veto. They passed a raise in the minimum wage, which Bush has said he will sign, but the two houses cannot reconcile the tax cuts for business which they insist must accompany that wage increase. Businesses contribute to their campaigns, minimum wage earners do not.

Both houses are investigating like crazy, and they have uncovered the expected crop of corruption and malfeasance, but is any change in the offing? Will any of the crooks and liars suffer any consequences for their actions? So far I see no signs of it. Bush and company will serve out their terms and retire to their mansions to live out their lives in wealth and comfort, enjoying their ill-gotten gains, and it will take decades to repair the damage they have done to our form of government.

The Republicans likely will lose big in 2008, of course, but Bush is a legend in his own mind, which is where he lives, so he doesn’t care.

Will anything change substantially after that loss? Based on what I’m hearing from the presidential candidates, I’m not counting on it. Only one of them is saying definitively that she will end the war in Iraq, and she is admitting that she will leave a substantial number of troops there.

None of them are even hinting that they will end the policy of American Imperialism, none of them are saying a word about reversing the damages done to our governmental infrastructure by the Bush Administration, only one (Edwards) is talking about addressing the widening gap between the poor and the wealthy, and none of them is saying anything about addressing the problem of the grip that has been established by moneyed interests on our form of government.

Business as usual in Washington.