I attribute this dream to my recent devolving into the esoteric world of US Senate rules and how they have been used through out our Republic's history and the insanely good, but greasy, al pastor tacos I ate before I went to sleep. The forbidden peppers I piled on might have also had something to do with it. That and hope.
It was mid-November, and I came back to America where there was almost a festive mood in the air. A veil of darkness had been lifted from the land so if the circus from Something Wicked This Way Comes had finally left town. Justice was making a come back even John Travolta would be impressed with. And the cows and accountability were finally coming on home.
What had broke the camel's back was the dual realization that the current administration was building an Orwellian evesdropping program that would be backed up by draconian enforcement. Getting caught red handed with troops in Iran by the UN without consent of the people or Congress, did not help matters either. People across the land were running even three-legged dogs to replace the corrupt and decadent congressmen in Washington. And they were winning handedly.
The elections were a peaceful blood bathe of democracy. The incredible magic of transfer of power by popular will of the citizenry at the ballot box was restored. And the results were astounding. Both sides took major hits as popular dissent and election season collided for a perfect political storm.
The people returned all Democratic and independent Senators who promised a collation to bring accountability back to the executive branch. Their voting block was now exactly 60-40, which is still statistically possible outside of dreamland if we were still a democracy. The House also underwent drastic changes, with the Democrats barely holding majority. Not because they lost seats, but because of the sheer amount of independents that flooded the floor. The Republicans were going the way of the Whigs, for corruption is easily exposed in our modern information age. A robber baron is still a robber baron, no matter how contemporary his clothes.
So I was sitting at the local coffee shop, taking it all in off the newspaper in my hands. But what struck me was an editorial whose stand point was this:
The congressional committees with a mandate from the people are laden with independents who are free from party control. Without this mechanism, special interests and other nefarious schemes have no levers to power, no way to hand deliver policy to be rubber stamped, no more puppet strings to pull. After a long lull, the decency of our democracy has not only been restored, but has evolved into being more responsive to the people. We are all finally free at last, free at last, from the latest grave threat to our beloved Constitution.
It was when I was about to freshen up my coffee and move to the comics page that real life fireworks began to explode in the valley below to let me know it was Friday morning in San Miguel. I quickly wrote down that the passage above as I savored my real coffee fresh from Oaxaca below. I thought about my dream and what could be, if we were only truly free, from sea to shining sea.