monarchs tend to find elections tedious and irrelevant

I wrote a post several days ago asking why congressional Republicans were so eager to support The Regime in its ongoing emasculation of congress as a co-equal branch of government, given their certain knowledge, based on the 200+ year history of our republic, that the shoe will inevitably be on the other foot, sooner or later (i.e., Democrats in the white house, Republicans controlling congress). My research since then has revealed an increasing number of voices being raised with one particular answer to that question.

But first this. A commenter on Glenn Greenwald's blog said this in answer to the related question of why congressional Democrats didn't really seem to be too eager to reject The Regime's marginalization of congress:

• Fin de siecle

  I agree that this latest outrage was telegraphed, in flavor if not in degree of arrogance, long ago. And I agree that the real tragedy here not the abuse itself, but the acquiescence in it by Congress.

  This institutional failure -- this mass Stockholm Syndrome of unprecedented scope and reach -- defies understanding and easy solutions. If the failure is one of vision, it is difficult to imagine what would make the scales fall from their eyes. If it is a failure of will, I do not know what would give them spine.

  If it means what some cynics argue -- that Dems roll over now because they see themselves on the other side of the jackboot in 2008 -- our Republic is finished, and it is time to head for the lifeboats.

  -- Blue Meme
  [Read Blue Meme's other letters]
  Permalink Friday, July 20, 2007 09:16 AM

A very insightful comment. But the truth may simply be that Democrats have a razor thin margin, and are just unable to make any significant inroads against Regime usurpation, try as they might. Republicans, obviously, do not have this excuse. So why, then, are they allowing THEMSELVES, as legislators, to be stripped of the power clearly allocated to them by the Constitution? Sure, a few of them may see themselves as one day ascending to the presidency, where they would then have the jackboot on their own foot. But there are almost 50 of them in the Senate alone, and surely only a small number of these have any such realistic expectation.

So, then why? A growing number of people are starting to come around to the idea I posited here. The only logical conclusion I can think of is that The Regime does not intend to leave. Ever. I can see a scenario where, in these caucus meetings attended by senior Regime officials, the Republicans say "But what happens when the Dems take over and they start exercising all this executive power? We will have given up all our avenues of recourse. What then?" And the senior Regime official responds, with an air of supreme confidence: "Just leave that to us. You'll see." In response to follow up questions like "when?", "where?", and "how?" (but not, of course, "why?") , the Regime Official calmly and knowingly replies "It's better if you don't know."