The unbending gridlock and the corporate political domination in D.C. are cancers

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Our View: Two Gauges Of Our Political Climate?
November 12, 2013

A couple of political notes have flown across the radar this week that together might serve as a comment on these contentious times.

An Associated Press story in Tuesday’s Press & Dakotan noted that former South Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler is mulling over the idea of running for his old seat that he lost to Tim Johnson in 1996. But this time, the Republican lawmaker said he’d consider making the run as an independent.

At this point, we need to hit the pause button to note that the odds of Pressler actually stepping back into the political boxing ring at age 71 are probably small. Pressler himself put it at less than 50-50. But what makes even the consideration of the move notable is his evident unhappiness with the current state of perpetual political gridlock on Capitol Hill.

“I think I could help break the deadlock between Republicans and Democrats,” he said, adding that, as an independent, he would not be beholden to any party lines or alignments.

Pressler is a politician from a different age. While he did move to the Senate from the House in a huge Republican wave in 1978 that foreshadowed the Ronald Reagan landslide of 1980, he was a lawmaker who came from a generation that realized that compromise and horse-trading were possible and, often, essential in order for government to run effectively. He was a lot like other lawmakers from both parties back in those days: While they were adamant in their views, they also knew how to occasionally cut deals at the end of the day and make the system work for everyone.

The other political tidbit was a report on the New Republic website Monday that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a freshman Democrat, might consider running for president in 2016 — especially if fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton enters the race as currently presumed. It’s reported that Warren has no illusions about actually winning the Democratic nomination, but she wants to instead battle for the party’s soul when it comes to dealing with big banks and big business.

Again, the odds of this happening appear unlikely. But the report has apparently raised some anxieties in corporate circles, where Warren’s fiery, bank-busting rhetoric is not warmly welcomed. One financial analyst called the prospect of a Warren candidacy “a nightmare scenario,” noting the prospect of Warren and possible GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) on either end of the political spectrum hammering vociferously at the same populist issue.

Warren’s apparent aim is to shake up the cozy relationships between mainstream Democrats and big business. And by 2016, such anti-corporate populism, which has been building steadily since the start of the Great Recession, might be a truly muscular force in the political realm and could change a lot of things.

Our guess is that the speculated bids by either Pressler or Warren will not come to pass. But both scenarios, coming from two very different kinds of politicians who are concerned about the status quo they see in Washington, may be seen as a symptom — with the unbending gridlock and the corporate political domination in D.C. cast as cancers. And in these scenarios, the voters are intended to be the collective cure.

Perhaps that’s the most important message to carry forward to 2014, 2016 and beyond.
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