Gridlock Is Good

“Gridlock is the next best thing to having a constitution.” – M. Stanton Evans

Now that the election is over, it’s time to ask if all the hyperventilating for the past year was worth it. Was this “the most important election in our history,” as so many have declared?

We are entirely unconvinced. If all it does is produce gridlock in Washington, we will be happy, because the biggest threat to the country is when lawmakers are productive.

To be clear, it would have been better if the GOP had kept their majorities, and we are deeply disturbed by the choices voters made in several races. The fact that a Casper Milquetoast leftist like James Talarico or a Hamas-loving extremist like Abdul Al-Sayed could get more than 2% of the vote does not bode well for our nation’s future.

But let’s go through the reasons not to be too overly concerned about the results.

First, it’s in the interest of Democrats to hype the importance of this election because they want to claim a mandate. But the norm is for the party out of power in the White House to gain seats in congressional races.

And even big swings don’t necessarily mean much long term. In 2010, for example, Republicans gained a net of 68 seats (and reclaimed the majority in the House), gained six seats in the Senate, and took six governorships away from Democrats.

It was a stunning rebuke of Barack Obama’s first two years in office, after which Obama said he’d just use his pen and phone to get things done, and then went on to win reelection.

Second, Democrats didn’t run on an agenda this year – other than Trump hatred – so they have no mandate for the next two years.

When Republicans gained control of the House in Bill Clinton’s first term, they did so by nationalizing the election under the banner of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America. Their outsized midterm win forced Clinton to compromise and let the GOP get things like welfare reform and a capital gains tax cut enacted.

The only thing Democrats have promised voters is that they will hold Trump “accountable.”

And if Democrats do try to get bills passed, none will make it into law unless they do the unthinkable and reach across the aisle, because President Donald Trump still holds the veto pen and has already declared that he will be the Veto President if Democrats take control of Congress.

So, the only thing we know for sure is that for the next two years, Washington, D.C., will be in a state of gridlock while Democrats unleash a torrent of investigations, impeachments, and endless claims of corruption and wrongdoing.

While that might keep the Democratic base happy, it’s likely to hurt them more than Republicans once the public realizes that revenge is not productive. And if the economy starts gaining momentum and Trump and the rest of the GOP stay focused on delivering good news about jobs and growth and income, Democrats will look even more out of touch with everyday Americans.

That’s not to say there is no risk. Democratic socialist wins today can provide tremendous momentum going into 2028. And if Democrats, God forbid, do win the White House that year, the country will be all but lost. But it’s just likely that emboldened radicals in the Democratic Party will turn off far more voters than they gain.

So, our advice is to let Democrats have their celebrations. Enjoy the gridlock for the next two years. And get busy laying the groundwork for massive victories in 2028, when the elections really matter.

Thank you for referencing that article MtnClimber.

Gridlock Is Good

PERMANENT peacetime federal government gridlock is basically what the drafters of the constitutionally limited power federal government (hint) had in mind when they drafted the Constitution. (Obama symbolically got the federal government's limited powers right when he spent time on the golf courses.)

I don't know what Trump's Justice Department is going to find concerning ballot box integrity in California and other alleged renegade states. But if Trump ignores possible Justice Department evidence of ballot box fraud in California and other Democratic-pirated states and doesn't "press the Section 2 button" of the 14th Amendment to punish such states with a loss of representation in Congress, then Trump might eventually be forgotten to history imo.

In fact, note the zero tolerance "hair triggers" in that section that the Supremes, Pence and the J6 Congress wrongly ignored (imo) when lawmakers voted to accept Biden's electoral votes in 2020 despite allegations of vote-counting problems, concerns about that election still not resolved imo.

is denied to any
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged,
Section 2 of 14A: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election [all emphases added] for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. [Apportionment of Representatives]
Section 5 of 14A: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

In fact, the Constitution is indefinitely not safely amendable under the current situation imo, gridlock or no gridlock, a successful application of Section 2 to Congress possibly making it amendable again.

With an amendable Constitution, Trump needs to examine the ill-conceived 16th (direct taxes) and 17th Amendments versus President James Madison's repeal of the Bonus Bill of 1817 and convince the states now held hostage by pirate state and federal Democrats to support a repeal of those amendments.

Regarding the Bonus Bill, note that the 14th Congress in the time of President James Madison (4th pres.), Madison generally regarded as the father of the Constitution, had found some EXISTING tax revenues and got all happy about spending it. So Congress drafted the Bonus Bill to use the taxpayer dollars to improve military readiness and commerce by authorizing the construction of roads and canals intended to facilitate moving troops and manufactured goods. But Congress had based the bill solely on the General Welfare Clause (GWC) which turned out to be a BIG mistake.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States [emphasis added]; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

But while Madison actually AGREED with Congress that the bill would improve transportation, he diplomatically clarified in his veto explanation that while the GWC authorizes Congress to tax and spend, he reminded Congress that the Constitution's drafters, Madison himself a major player, had intended for the clauses that followed it in Section 8 to limit what Congress could spend tax dollars for, no mention of roads and canals for Congress's purpose for the Bonus Bill. Madison also noted that the bonus bill didn't even pass Congress's traditional "wild card" excuse for justifying spending, the infamous "Necessary and Proper Clause."

The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation within the power to make laws necessary and proper [emphasis added] for carrying into execution those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States. —President James Madison, March 3, 1817: Veto Message on the Internal Improvements Bill

Also consider that Thomas Jefferson's advice on interpreting Congress's limited powers compliments Madison's veto.

In every event, I would rather construe so narrowly as to oblige the nation to amend, and thus declare what powers they would agree to yield, than too broadly, and indeed, so broadly as to enable the executive and the Senate to do things which the Constitution forbids. —Thomas Jefferson: The Anas, 1793.

In fact, note that the Constitution's drafters appropriately required the peacetime Congress to meet only once a year so that they could approve artwork for new postage stamps. But let's also include military readiness as one of Congress's once a year meeting chores.

Article I, Section 4, Clause 2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year [emphasis added], and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads; It is one of a few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. (non-FR)
10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution [all emphases added], nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.—Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824. (Abuse of 16A)It is one of a few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. (non-FR)
If the tax be not proposed for the common defence, or general welfare, but for other objects, wholly extraneous (as for instance [all emphases added], for propagating Mahometanism among the Turks, or giving aids and subsidies to a foreign nation, to build palaces for its kings, or erect monuments to its heroes,) it would be wholly indefensible upon constitutional principles. — Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2 (1833).
Also, the congressional record shows that Rep. John Bingham, a constitutional lawmaker, had clarified the federal government's constitutionally limited powers as follows.
Simply this, that the care of the property, the liberty, and the life of the citizen [all emphases added], under the solemn sanction of an oath imposed by your Constitution, is in the States and not in the federal government. I have sought to effect no change in that respect in the Constitution of the country. —John Bingham, Congressional. Globe. 1866, page 1292 (see top half of third column)
From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added]. —United States v. Butler, 1936.
16th Amendment: The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived [emphasis added], without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves [emphasis added]. It seems to be the law of our general nature. —Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)

The 16th Amendment is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for organized crime, front-ended by deep state Congress, and desperately needs to be repealed. The 17th Amendment, popular voting for federal senators, needs to disappear too.

Note that a resolution to repeal 16A was introduced in 2021, but was unsurprisingly ignored.

The bottom line is that it may be time for Trump to "press the Section 2 of 14A button."

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