Jere, what am I going to do with you?
Nash wrote that back in the day, “the Democratic governor and Democratic legislature usually resolved problems.” Then, “all of a sudden,” Republicans came on the scene and bogged down the works.
First of all, that’s just not good history. Examples abound of how governors Bill Allain, Ray Mabus and Ronnie Musgrove — Democrats all — got balled up with the Legislature and either caused gridlock or got run over with veto overrides.
And second, yes, it’s just a fact, that a government that is roughly balanced from a partisan perspective is not very efficient. A further fact is, government by separation of powers is not very efficient. Things would work a whole lot faster if we had a czar, and resolution of issues would be, to use Jere’s word, more “expeditious”, if we had a king. But none of us would trade for one moment his freedom for expeditious resolution or efficiency.
The parliamentary legislative process can be maddeningly slow, expensive and frustrating. But we believe and hope that the end result looks something like the will of the people. What a country. It’ll be fine, Jere.
Red/Blue Blog
7/9/8
