Seven and a half months into the Biden administration, all eyes are on the mid-term elections of 2022. The Senate is split 50-50 with no majority and no minority despite seeming Democrat control of that chamber. Actually, the Constitution does not assign the Vice President any role in the organization of the Senate. (See my blog post of Jan 22, 2021 “The Senate and the Vice President”). The House of Representatives is controlled by a razor thin Democrat majority. A handful of votes in either house of the Congress can make or break proposed legislation. Each party would like to expand its delegation in the midterms. For the Democrats, an expanded House majority and a Senate majority would allow the Biden administration to pass legislation important to it and its constituencies. Similarly, Republican control of either or both houses would block the Biden program and strengthen GOP prospects for 2024.
Increased turbulence, social fragmentation and unrest, economic dislocations, the ongoing pandemic and foreign policy disasters inter alia have made ice skating in the summer a new activity. Unfortunately, the ice is thin and the skaters may drown in the icy waters if they are not careful. Social issues represent a great danger to the Republican Party. The passage of strict anti-abortion legislation in Texas contains revolutionary regulations which ultimately may destroy that party as we know it. The Republicans have always been the party of freedom and progress. It was the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Its stand on the issue of abortion cost it the election of 1992, giving us Bill Clinton and ultimately Barack Obama. More importantly it destroyed Republican Parties in many states with its emphasis on an issue that may fly in Mississippi but not in large urban states. Even if the GOP dominated Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, terminations of pregnancy will continue. Passing laws which make criminals of honest people are ab initio invalid and will not be observed. The ”great experiment”, the eighteenth amendment, prohibition, amply demonstrated that. The Republican Party must stop its suicidal venture into controlling personal behavior which is intimately and intensely private. America is not Ceacescu’s Romania.
The Democrats are playing an equally dangerous game. Massive spending, unheard of budgetary deficits, an overly permissive monetary policy combined with a reckless fiscal policy has the country on the verge of serious inflation. Proposed tax legislation, including massive tax increases, both personal and corporate, threaten American prosperity. Marking assets to market and taxing unrealized capital gains is dangerous to an innovative economy. Higher estate taxes and monitoring all bank transactions greater than $600.00 are the opening salvos in economic class warfare. The Democrat’s feel that they need revenue to pay for their massive programs but war on the people who make society function is not productive. Twenty-first century America doesn’t need “Big Brotherism”. Immigration and foreign policy initiatives as well threaten the stability and progress of our nation.
This warning applies to both parties. Neither is without sin. Both must realize that in our country the individual is more important than the group and that the government is the servant of the people, not its masters. A wake-up call is in order.
Garry S. Sklar
Guttenberg, NJ
September 3, 2021
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