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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rarebird who wrote (269065)	11/30/2003 1:00:19 PM
From: Oblomov	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

RB, and in the following year in the US, both chambers of Congress changed hands from Democratic to Republican hands (the Dems had held the lower house for the entire Cold War period, and the Senate for most of the Cold War). Years ago, Willmoore Kendall wrote that the uniqueness of American government was in the fact that there are two distinct majoritarian influences in American politics: the Presidency and the Congress. They behave differently. The Presidency functions differently than merely the head of a parliamentary majority, and people elect Presidents with this in mind. I think we have seen a realignment of Congress, and of the Presidency since the Cold War ended. Possibly there has been a further shift since 9/11. Despite stylistic differences, Bush and Clinton have governed in a very similar manner. They display a pragmatic centrism. Bush has been much more partisan since 9/11 than before, but then so have the Democratic leaders. Our society is becoming increasingly polarized. Someday people will be able to look back and tell whether this is another 1856 or another 1966, or neither. But the red/blue state division looks strikingly like the division of the Civil War. A left-liberal Presidency, cheered among the NYC literati but despised in the entreprenerial class of suburban Atlanta, might simply speed things along to their culmination. I agree entirely with your statements regarding our lost liberties. Whatever happens, my property rights and ownership of my person are STILL and WILL ALWAYS BE inviolable. The degree to which the state fails to recognize and ratify these rights is the degree to which it is illegitimate. Hmmm, too much coffee this morning, maybe. Time for a jog. <g>