The Punxsutawney Phils of Politics

Hope springs eternal in the human breast in the spring when the grass is fresh on the fields of baseball dreams. Now, as we deepen into fall, with baseball gone and a midterm election just completed, hope is not bubbling. If you're a Roadkill Party voter, you're facing another nuclear winter of discontent as the left and write lob grenades. Those of us in the middle just got another tire mark down our back.

Welcome to the American electoral process where the extremities of the political body are hot with the coming blood while the heart of America chills. The biggest casualties in the election this week weren't the Democrats but the moderate Republicans, the Fox reviled RINOs. Any hope of congressional compromise will likely leave the building in January.

I saw a t-shirt advertised in a Christmas catalog that said "Politicians and Underwear are both something that should be changed often for obvious reasons." That sentiment played out for about the umpteenth election in a row as American voters threw out the old in favor of fresh blood. Actually, the electorate was simply out for the usual blood.

This time it is the right's turn to jump into the box enabled by ballots and they'll have at least a couple years to have their way. They deserve a chance to unwind some of the stuff the dithering Democrats did while they were in control. I'm sure guns and cigarettes will be well represented while the environment won't have vote one.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “So it goes”.

David Letterman had a good line the other night about there being another person jumping the fence at the White House. Police identified the jumper as Barack Obama, who was leaping the fence to escape. I laughed, but think Obama should stay and face the music no matter how out of tune it may sound to his own biased ear.

My take is we will have a period of rampant solidarity in Congress as they push their agenda while Obama will try to circumvent the constitution in the name of Executive Privilige to defend his agenda. It’s what solid majority congresses and lame duck presidents do, a dance that’s as graceful as the flight of the bumblebee. We will have bunker mentality at its finest. Envision World War I with the trenches, except the tear gas will be the flatulent rhetoric released via the airwaves and nobody will be joining arms and singing "Over There!" Or Kumbaya for that matter.

Over There is a place the enemy lives, where Don Henley's "Them and Us" comes true as surely as any prediction of George Orwell. "We'll all be good and crispy but we'll still be Number 1! suddenly seems plausible. Is it only me who feels the Ebola scare is equal parts 1984 and Tulip Mania? There’s a Disney runaway mine train feeling to the evening news.

If somebody doesn't grab the rudder and begin to steer the ship, then we'll end up capsizing if each side just keeps tipping as hard as they can, churning the waters with their oratorical oars.

The only blessing is our Founding Fathers built this Ark with good enough wood to withstand whatever idiots are at the helm. At least that’s worked so far. In the end you have to just trust in the prospect of the American middle to come out of hiding. I suspect if the Punxsutawney Phil of American Politics ever does emerge from our middle of the road pothole he or she will look startlingly different than both sides envision.

We won’t be either Them or Us but somebody’s going to have to care enough to become We.

Oh well, maybe the middle isn’t ready to emerge. Next election we can throw all the new bums out and replace them with the same old song with a different verse from the other extreme. I already feel a need to change my underwear for some reason. I guess it's just for the sake of change.

I sure miss baseball.