Gridlock is Just Not Going to Cut It

If you thought the last congress was an adventure in dysfunction, just wait till January 3. The 112th Congress will make gridlock look like a nursery school game.

Here's the picture. Many moderate Republicans were trounced in primaries by tea party conservatives who clearly are not about to show up in Washington to kowtow to establishment Republicans no less Democrats. And Republicans who did survive have no incentive to cooperate with the president, most considering it a bad career move. Presumptive House Speaker John Boehner already set the tone, proclaiming, "This is not a time for compromise."

Then there's Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who told the National Journal: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Not job recovery, not energy independence, not deficit reduction. Finish off Obama. Now there's some quality statesmanship!

So how will Obama choose to govern given this toxic stew? Further infuriate his left flank by seeking accommodation with those already threatening to pillory him? Not a pretty option. Or play hardball and hope voters hold Republicans responsible for the gridlock? Also tricky. Will Republicans run the risk of ticking-off their base or letting a besieged president receive credit for bipartisan solutions? Doesn't look like it.

And the tea party nostrum of taking a baseball bat to government by pulverizing spending, programs and regulations will have a shelf life of about six months among independent voters once specific legislation and tax cuts are introduced.

Now there are a whole lot of conservatives who think gridlock and emaciated government is a perfectly fine idea. And it might be if we were the only country in the world. But we're not and a lot of second world nations like China, India, Brazil, South Africa are more than happy to grab our jobs, fine-tune their kids and advance 21st century green and gene technologies while we dither around in partisan wonderland.

Republicans keep yapping, "the people's voice was heard." But which people? Regardless of the "shellacking" Democrats took last week, this is still essentially a 50-50 country. Republicans will find themselves at the other end of the paint brush in two years if they actually try to implement their more radical notions like privatizing Social Security and Medicare and letting corporations run wild.

For instance, for all the GOP/tea party invective over health care reform, exit polling showed 49 percent of voters want the health care law expanded or left alone. Only 47 percent want it repealed.

The vast middle still doesn't have the responsive government it longs for; one in which levelheaded grown-ups address America's huge, interlocking structural problems instead of politicians savaging each other for political advantage in 2012.