Posted by
Mantic on Sunday, August 19, 2007 12:55:04 PM
In many family relationships, there is a power hierarchy among the children. It is often age related because older kids are bigger sooner. There are a lot of dynamics at play and all relationships are different, however, there is always a kind of "dhimmitude" or submission on the part of younger children in their relationship to their older siblings.
For some families, this results in some pretty serious sibling rivalry as the younger child will often rebel against the older child's sense of privilege of being older and their insistence on deference.
For other families, the older child may resent the ascendency of competence of a younger child and the sibling rivalry that ensues can cause conflict.
In our current political conflict, these same forces are at play. For decades the Dems dominated both houses of Congress... they felt that they deserved deference. All of a sudden, the Republicans... the littler, less consequential child, has the power. As we have seen, all hell has broken loose.
President Bush tried to show equality by inviting the Clinton's and the Kennedy's into the White House for various events honoring them. What has he gotten in return? Well the Clinton's and Kennedy's will have no part of the younger child honoring them. That implies a position of power on the part of President Bush. Once the ceremonies are over, the Clinton's and the Kennedy's along with the rest of the Democrat party can think of nothing better than to slam those upstart Republicans. Being nice to the older brother is seen as condescension not amity on the part of the older child.
The Republican Congress for their part have had a different reaction. It has been a deeply conflicted one. On one hand, Trent Lott came up with a power sharing arrangement when the Republicans had a super-slim majority. What did the Democrats do? They obstructed, ranted, raved and spewed venom on their Republican counterparts at every turn. There was no propriety, collegiality, maturity. It was and has been utter nastiness on the part of the Dems. Once the tables turn, the "older sibling" Dems continue to bully and persecute. There is no quarter given the "younger sibling". There can't be for the disgrace heaped upon the Dems, having their "younger sibling" rule over them.
The conflicted aspect is evident in the sense of privilege the Republican Congress... especially the House, in taking advantage of their majority. Ethics? That's for the other guy. Power? That's the focus... maintain their power at all costs. Rather than govern intelligently, the Republican Congress clumsily exercised authority (still giving undue deference to the Dems) by ignoring the charge their electorates gave them. And they blew it big time.
The war in Iraq is a convenient excuse the Republican House gave for loosing the 2006 elections. The real reason they lost is because the public didn't like the way the House focused on retaining power. The De Lay issue... the other sexual and bribery scandals as well as the overall tone turned voters off. The anti-Republican press did their part to publicize the worst aspects of the Republicans and it worked.
And now we are faced with the relentless bullying of the Dems. Their performance on the Iraq War was absolutely disgraceful and bordered on treason... it still does. They have had their own hypocrisy exposed and it will continue when General Petraeus provides his interim report on the Surge strategy.
The issues of "dhimmitude" on the part of the administration still needs to be addressed. The deference the Republicans and the President will show to the Dens will be pathetic. Those who so viciously attacked the war and declared defeat should be relentlessly pursued and exposed... but that won't happen.
The rivalry will continue, but until the Republican party can get out of the "younger sibling" role and act with maturity and external purpose, this internecine political war will continue.