Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:57pm

Power Pendulum

Being a “big picture” kind of guy, I’m beginning to see federal politics as a straightforward “power pendulum”, especially in a 2 party system.

This may be an over-simplification, but generally, any large nation will always have serious problems; some real, and some only perceived. The party (or parties) out of power will blame the party in power and say “It’s their fault; they are incompetent, or corrupt, or both. We will do better”. And they will beat that drum continuously until they themselves are in power; then the cycle repeats itself. Even if things are going relatively well, the party out of power will say “They squandered a great opportunity”.

In recent decades…

  • Clinton (D) started with a Democrat Congress
  • Congress swung back to Republican control during his presidency
  • Bush Jr.(R) started with a Republican congress
  • Congress swung back to Democrat control during his presidency
  • Obama (D) started with a Democrat Congress
  • Congress swung back to Republican control during his presidency
  • Trump (R) started with a Republican congress
  • Congress begins to swing back to Democrats in 2018
  • Biden (D) will start with a (almost?) Democrat congress
  • To be continued…

Maybe the founders foresaw this kind of scenario going back to the Federalists & the Anti-Federalist, and in a good way; like separation of powers to create some intentional gridlock. This prevents big changes from happen too quickly and does not involve a 2/3 vote; a way to keep things balanced and to keep us from killing each other (exception of the Civil War noted). After all, if your side is not in power, they will be “soon”, so just be patient.

So look for a Republican upswing possibly starting in 2022 or almost certainly by 2024, but don’t expect it to last very long…It’s a fleeting thing.

“…since our Lord left the earth, God has sent political regimes to try His faithful ones, as gold in a furnace. From ancient Rome, to Northern Africa in the Middle Ages, to Protestant England, to the insidious regimes of Hitler and Stalin, to the Middle East and China today…This is not an alarmist or apocalyptic prognostication of things to come in these United States. It is a sobering reminder that happy endings have never been guaranteed for believers in the political and social arena.”

-David G Bonagura, Jr.

Quote taken from HERE

0 0 votes
Article Rating
20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 9:35am

It should be noted that in the ebb and flow of politics American has become more and more Progressive, i.e, Communistic. That thesis-antithesis-synthesis and the rise of Cultural Marxism is the strategy that is sinking our country. And it is evident nearly everywhere in our culture.

We shall see whether America is any longer the home of the free and the brave. For where do we see a mass uprising against the recent corrupt election, against the phony Covid crisis? We don’t.

To me our future looks bleak particularly since our Church is effectively controlled by Communists.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  Michael Dowd
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 11:22am

where do we see a mass uprising against the recent corrupt election, against the phony Covid crisis? We don’t.

Actually quite a few large protests as to both. Successful legal battles have been waged in the courts against quite a few Covid restrictions. We shall see how this plays out.

DJH
DJH
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 11:31am

Legal battles and victories are fleating. Michigan Supreme Court overturned Tyrant Gretchen, and she turned to the Health Dept bureaucrats to enforce her lock downs.
.
And she appears to be winning.

Rudolph Harrier
Rudolph Harrier
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 12:24pm

The “political pendulum” can only operate in an environment where the votes are actually counted correctly.

Or at least, that’s the only way for it to operate via the ballot box…

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 2:11pm

“After all, if your side is not in power, they will be “soon”, so just be patient.”

Why the “Pollyanna” attitude? Please explain why we should think that the majority of the voters in 2022 or 2024 won’t be also be disenfranchised like they are trying to get away with in 2020?

The problem seems to be, correct me if I’m wrong, that you think that they want our country to continue. Way too many of the Democrats have openly declared their contempt for the country, it’s laws and our history and want to create a new country on the smoking ruins of this one.

Clinton
Clinton
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 2:35pm

I have to agree with JFK above— why should I think that, having once engineered voter fraud on a national scale, the left won’t do it again?

They have two years before the midterms. They have the media running interference, and Social Media muzzling and deplatforming opposition. Antifa/BLM goons are there to target the right’s supporters and rallies.
And folks with deep, deep pockets are happy to fund the left’s unpopular, unsalable idiocies.

The notion of our politics behaving like a pendulum is so very yesterday. The power-hungry left has grabbed that pendulum and yanked it leftward, and intends to keep it shackled there by whatever means it takes. The entire nation will be Cook County writ large.

Rudolph Harrier
Rudolph Harrier
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 2:42pm

Even in the “good old days” where both parties accepted the other would eventually be in power, we still suffered from what the late great Zippy called the “Hegelian Mambo.”

When’s the pendulum going to swing back so that abortion and no fault divorce is illegal, even absent rigged elections from the left?

I think we can change the country’s view so that those things are illegal again, and so that many more beneficial changes happen to the country on top of it. But it ain’t gonna happen with a “you win some, you lose some, but we’ll be on top again eventually” attitude.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 2:45pm

Why the “Pollyanna” attitude?

Why the gloom and doom attitude? The Republicans stole an election in 1876. Your namesake probably stole an election in 1960. Straight line projections when it comes to politics are normally illusory. Undue optimism and undue pessimism are always unwarranted, at least in this country, in regard to politics, that most everchanging avocation. Ben is correct that history in this country does have pendulum swings between the parties. Maybe this time it is different, but the odds are against that proposition. If anything this election may be looked back upon by the Democrats as a curse for them, ushering in a powerless President and initiating a civil war between their left and not so left factions.

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 3:15pm

Not a gloom and doom attitude, it’s simply a sober observation of the state of affairs and the changes in the country.
I am unfamiliar with the 1876 election. I assume you are correct. Did my namesake steal the election 1960 in your state? Absolutely. However, would anyone say that the Democrats of 1960 or 1976 wanted the Socialists to take over the country? Did they reject the flag and kneel in protest against it? That is no longer the case with that party and the open support of the domestic terrorist blocks / mobs in many Democrat lead cities shows where their members hearts and minds reside.
Additionally, I’ve seen interviews with too many people who have lived through this already, in 30’s Germany, in the eastern block, Cuba, central and South America.
Can I be wrong, I hope so.

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 3:27pm

Ben, the problem is they want to remove the pendulum altogether and cut out completely any of the checks.
– Pack the court.
– Executive Orders to bypass Congress – https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/01/democrats-executive-power-warren-student-debt/605800/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-first-executive-orders-measures/2020/11/07/9fb9c1d0-210b-11eb-b532-05c751cd5dc2_story.html

And the most dangerous option, Pack the Union – https://harvardlawreview.org/2020/01/pack-the-union-a-proposal-to-admit-new-states-for-the-purpose-of-amending-the-constitution-to-ensure-equal-representation/

I take them at their word. Whether or not they succeed, I don’t know. I hope they fail.

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 3:36pm

Ben, One more thing to consider. In Michigan, the Governor acts like a Dictator in many ways, usurping the powers and function of the Legislature which is majority Republican. However due to Democrat support of the Governor’s actions, the Legislature has remained powerless to act. Their Supreme Court has ruled the actions of the Governor as unconstitutional. That has not changed how she’s acted and has continued to issue orders. The checks and balances ONLY work if ALL sides follow them.

Clinton
Clinton
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 3:41pm

I think that the model is changing since 2016, and not in favor of a free-swinging pendulum.

Social Media is driving the right from the public square in a way undreamt of four years ago.

With the capitulation of Fox News, the legacy media are now all-in for the hard left, er, the “moderate non-fascists”.

The left has stormtroopers now, antifa/ BLM thugs eager to assault and intimidate the right’s candidates, their events and their voters.

International corporations, communist China (and cartels) for varying reasons are all firmly behind the left and are all willing to spend enormous amounts to buy politicians amenable to their goals.

The landscape of American politics is changing forever, and the pendulum analogy is going the way of the telegram and the buggy whip.

Oh sure, there are still red states, and there will be red areas for years to come. But they will be increasingly isolated, silenced, manipulated and eventually assimilated into the giant Chicago/Portland/Philadelphia our left intends to build.

If these fraudsters aren’t checked and exposed for their theft, they’ll do it again— only they’ll have refined their game.
Eventually, Mordor will come to the Shire.

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 5:18pm

However, would anyone say that the Democrats of 1960 or 1976 wanted the Socialists to take over the country?

Harry Truman, the only Democrat candidate I could imagine myself voting for, used to call Republicans economic fascists. The Democrat party has usually been far to the Left when it comes to economics. In Lincoln’s day they were called locofocos because of economic radicalism of a faction of the party. JFK was initially viewed with suspicion by liberals in his party, including Eleanor Roosevelt. I think the main thing most Democrats will take from this election is going hard Left is a loser at the ballot box. I expect them to lose the House in 2022, and 2024 will be an interesting clash dependent completely on how things have gone over the past four years, especially if a civil war within the Democrat party opens up, which I think likely.

John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 5:50pm

Don, I bow to your knowledge on the subject and the histories of the major parties.
“especially if a civil war within the Democrat party opens up”.
It’s entirely possible nature will take it course and several prominent Dems will age out (or die) and clear the floor so the younger, much more radical, Dems will have a free reign (as in terror).

Donald R. McClarey
Reply to  John F. Kennedy
Tuesday, November 17, AD 2020 7:13pm

The good thing about Leftists JFK is that they are born heresy hunters. The urge to fight each other will prove irresistible as more and more Dems decide, as Reagan and Trump did, my party has left me.

Rudolph Harrier
Rudolph Harrier
Wednesday, November 18, AD 2020 5:38pm

I would say that this globally coordinated assault on freedoms, in the claims of stopping a slightly worse than average flu, is “something new under the sun.”

If you didn’t see that coming don’t tell me that you know what’s coming in 2024.

I’m not advocating for doom and gloom. I think we should fight back and can win. What I’m advocating against is complacency; while there are some broad echoes of past events what we are fighting now is legitimately new.

Jerry
Jerry
Wednesday, November 18, AD 2020 7:14pm

The swing of the pendulum has always been my view of politics in America. While I don’t like to lose, I can accept that as a sort of ongoing “give and take.” However, that has all been flushed down the toilet with this blatant fraud of an election. For the pendulum to work, people have to accept electoral votes as being true. And now it begs the question, what other elections have been a fraud, and how can we be sure of any election in the future?

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top