I support the dog-whistle of claiming the US Senate is dumber than the Polish in a roundabout manner.

Not that I don't believe there's a serious problem...

...but there is some irony in hearing progressives complain incessantly about the concept of consensus. (passes talking stick to the left)

back in the day ... when I was a wee lad, my state had Phil Hart and Robert Griffth as senators. They were polar opposites - liberal anti war Dem, country-club repub. When I mentioned this to a congressman I once knew, he simply said " well, they always tried to do waht is best for Michigan, and the country; sometimes they disagreed, but they always kept things civil and worked on some issues together" ...

Now that the reupubs are the party competely given to non-government, or anti-government - what exactly would they do if, god forbide, they got into power again?

The Republican party of NO has manipulated the conversation, successfully put a hold on Health Care Reform advocates supporting corporations not Americans. If the conservatives can't change the law than send anything to the supreme Court and the law will be passed to accommodate the republicans NO. The Democrats are the party with major senators who either refuse to represent America and Americans because the connection with corporate donations far exceeds the need to represent the American voters. Someone said nothing will be gained by this Congress. After the Republicans gain more seats will the next Congress improve in represeting those who voted them in office?

What, exactly, would be a large enough Democratic majority? Like, maybe, all Democrats? Even then you'd have smug holdouts like Holy Joe Lieberman to placate and suck up to, or you'd never get anything done.

I'm a great admirer of President Obama, and want to see him succeed, but even his admirers must admit this isn't the first time his administration has waited pretty late in the game to get worried. This problem was obvious long ago, but a great deal of time was wasted in foolish bipartisanship exercises that were promptly spurned.

A decent Chief of Staff would have been all over this much earlier, and Rahm Emanuel spent way too much time sitting on his hands. For every news source like this one that decries Republican obstructionism, there's another that praises the Republicans for their firm patriotic stand against advancing socialism, and begs them to hold their ground.

"when I was a wee lad, my state had Phil Hart and Robert Griffth as senators"

And may I toss in Bill Milliken, or even the first Romney, as governors. God, these Republicans make the current crop of so-called "moderate" or "reasonable" Republicans -- Snowe, Collins, et al. -- look like complete and total hacks. Craven cowards in the face of the ignorant forces of reaction, trying only to maintain their own status in what has become a wrecking crew working to cripple the Republic. If only a handful of them actually cared more about fixing the problems that are bringing the country low, and less about their own egos.

Here's one area in which I can only wish for a return of the old days.

i doubt that

1) the american peeps are gonna understand that reforming the clown car us senate is what most ails our society today -- as much as failed financial institutions, failed health care institutions, failed public education, or whatever lies and myths the feral and hate-filled religious institutions tell them are the problems...

and 2) 'reforming' the clown car us senate isn't the issue: read lawrence lessing's piece in this week's Nation magazine. The whole god damn government is rotten -- the Repugnants' obstructionism is just a piece of it...

Lessig, the man's name is Lessig.

Matt Yglesias cautioned against reading too much into Poland's dissolution, noting that the country was surrounded by more powerful neighbors and would've been gobbled up, governmental gridlock or not.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/02/18th-century-polish-strategic-dilemmas.php

Krugman doesn't need to reach for such an obscure parallel to illustrate how dire the situation has become. He could just point to the dysfunctional Articles of Confederation.

My concern is that when the Republicans once again gain a majority in the senate, there will be nothing the Democrats can do to stop their more insane legislation.

That's right Neil it's all black and white as per usual with you. They're all bad right. Your just as big a shmuck as the tea baggers.

Our retarded Media

...even many political reporters think the status quo is somehow routine. It's not.

One gets the feeling today's reporters cover politics only because they can't get the sports or celeb beats. Consequently they've got nothing substantial operating in their noodles. Nothing to build a solid question on.

I suspect all this vain emptiness is only going to get worse. Why? Because the internet at our fingertips means we don't put anything into our brains anymore. Nor does school ask us to. Memorize stuff? Good golly. That's donkey work and besides, we have the net on our "smart" phones...

Here's James Kunstler in a recent post nailing it:

I sat in a bar Friday evening with a financial reporter from a national newspaper, trying to explain the peak oil situation and what it implied for our economy. He had never heard it before. The relationship between energy resources and massive debt was new to him. (It also came up in conversation that he could not tell me what the Monroe Doctrine was about, despite a history degree from Yale.) There you have a nice snapshot of the mainstream media in this land.

Krugman is, by some measures, the most influential commentator in the country...

My feeling is that if that were actually true, we wouldn't be as screwed up as we are.

You need both: reforming the Senate as well as more Dem Senators because, as we have learned to our chagrin and sorrow, too many of the Democratic Senators aren't real Democrats.

"The whole god damn government is rotten".

What exactly is "the government"? Being a retired "the government" worker, I take exception to comments like this. After all, our government is comprised of elected, appointed, and career employees. Do you have any problem when on our public roads or flying in a plane from a public airport? Get your roads plowed if you have snow. Have fresh water and sewer service? Get mail delivered to you by a responsible adult every day, except Sundays. Call the cops, fire and rescue, and they usually show in a reasonable amount of time. All these functions of "the government" are run by capable employees. Of course you will encounter the sterotypical "government worker", but my observations say they are a blip on the radar. Please don't condemn the "whole government" workforce with a couple of keystrokes and realize our elected offcials may be the problem right now.

"The more people realize that a functioning government is dependent on either a) reforming the Senate; or b) an even larger Democratic majority, the better."

If I were the DNC I'd do an advertisement spead over the airwaves starting now saying just that. "The Republicans are prevnting the passsage of health care climate change, etc due to simple obstructonist tactics in the Senate. They tried to prevent civil rights, the clean air bill, medicare, and now they are trying to stop all work on the Senate. Vote Democratic for Democracy."

If I were the DNC I'd do an advertisement spead over the airwaves starting now saying just that. "The Republicans are prevnting the passsage of health care climate change, etc due to simple obstructonist tactics in the Senate. They tried to prevent civil rights, the clean air bill, medicare, and now they are trying to stop all work on the Senate. Vote Democratic for Democracy."

If I were the DNC I'd do an advertisement spead over the airwaves starting now saying just that. "The Republicans are prevnting the passsage of health care climate change, etc due to simple obstructonist tactics in the Senate. They tried to prevent civil rights, the clean air bill, medicare, and now they are trying to stop all work on the Senate. Vote Democratic for Democracy."

meanwhile,

the stimulus is working is prevented another Republican created Great Depression, Hank Paulson said so on NBC Sunday Morning. when they Repubicans say it did not, they are using the tactics of Vladimir Lenin, "A lie told long enough becomes the truth."

the stimulus is working is prevented another Republican created Great Depression, Hank Paulson said so on NBC Sunday Morning. when they Repubicans say it did not, they are using the tactics of Vladimir Lenin, "A lie told long enough becomes the truth."

the stimulus is working is prevented another Republican created Great Depression, Hank Paulson said so on NBC Sunday Morning. when they Repubicans say it did not, they are using the tactics of Vladimir Lenin, "A lie told long enough becomes the truth."

An even larger Democratic majority would be of no value whatever because it would most likely be cobbled together with DINOs like Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson. The only solution is reform. Individual U.S. senators have too much power. This makes them open to corruption. That needs to change. But the only way it can change is for them to give up some of their power. Don't hold your breath.

SW, I disagree. Get a Metzenbaum in for Ohio and a Phil Hart in for Michigan, and a Ted Kennedy back in for Massachussetts, and you'd have a whole different situation, where the Republicans would be completely irrelevant (at least until they figured out to to claim that votes that pass by less that 75% are unamerican) and where we could equally completely ignore Lieberman, Landrieu, and Bayh and still lose a few more democrats and even then would still be able to get stuff done. More and better democrats!! If we give up the fight this close to winning, we deserve exactly the quality of government that the republicans will give us.

So, all we have to do is figure out how to raise the dead and we are home free.

I think there are areas they can work together. Both parties are corrupt on enforcement of immigration laws, for example, so it's a good time for Comprehensive Immigration Corruption. Obama promised Hispanics. Si se puede. Take my job... please.

So, all we have to do is figure out how to raise the dead and we are home free.

SW wins the internets for today.

"Ours is a society that can recognize problems and craft effective solutions, but can't act -- on health care, on energy, on education, on the judiciary, etc. -- because a discredited Republican Senate minority opposes the ability of the majority to govern."

No, the Democrats refuse to act because they are fucking pantywaist morons. As mentioned above, just wait til the Republicans get back the majority and see what can be done with 50 senators.

"...just wait til the Republicans get back the majority and see what can be done with 50 senators."

I've seen it, thanks. But you might want to keep al Qaeda apprised, I'm sure they'll be very pleased.

Grumpy, @12:15,

It just so happens that Yglesias is all wet on this issue. In 17th c, Poland was twice as large as it is now and still in its expansionist mode. Yes, we had neighbours who tried to get a piece but, time after time, they were repelled, militarily. Krugman is absolutely right -- it *was* the so-called "liberum veto" procedure which took us down. All the foreign powers had to do was buy *one, single* arsehole in the Sejm and months of negotiations went down in flames. If you think the Senate working last Christmas Eve was peculiar, think in terms of a single session of the Sejm lasting 5 effing years, without coming to any decision.

Krugman could have chosen an example much closer to home: The Articles of Confederation, predecessor to the Constitution, rendered the Federal government nearly useless as Congress could not tax, and changing the feeble Articles required unanimous consent.

Hi exlibra, long time no hear.

For those who don't remember, she's from Poland.

The thing is there seem to be parts of the Republican't party who WANT the United States to be a little less united. States Rights, defederalism and seccessionist movements abound these days because they have discovered that if they reveal their true face to America they no longer can enjoy a majority.

As for the Polish Constitution and the dissolution of the Kingdom under it, it was a MAJOR source of concern for the Founding Fathers and the reason we have the system we've got, to a degree.