Our 118th Congress off to an increasingly dysfunctional start.

 On Jan 3, 2023, the first day of the new 118^th Congress, the needed quorum to elect a Speaker of the House’ this chamber of Representatives started the day with a prayer and the pledge of alliance.

Highlights of the Chaplain’s prayer they all heard:  “ETERNAL GOD, YOU SPOKE AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH LIFE. WITH A WORD YOUR SPIRIT BREATHED INTO HUMANITY THE ESSENCE AND PURPOSE OF OUR VERY BEING. ... BREATHE INTO THE BODY OF THE 118th CONGRESS YOUR WORD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE, COMPASSION AND WISDOM. GIVE EACH MEMBER THE GUIDANCE TO BE FAITHFUL STEWARDS OF THIS DIVINE TASKING AND TO WIELD THIS PRIVILEGE CAREFULLY. ... REMIND US THAT AMIDST ALL THE DEBATE, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE FINAL WORD. .... LAY ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN THE MANTLE OF BOTH RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY....  CALL THESE WHO REPRESENT THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF THE AMERICANS WHO HAVE VOTED THEM INTO OFFICE TO HEED FIRST YOUR VOICE AND THEN AS THEY UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS MORAL PRINCIPLES, GRANT THEM STRENGTH AND REASON, PURPOSE, AND INSIGHT. ... GIVE US EYES TO SEE YOUR GUIDING HAND, EARS TO HEAR YOUR WISE TRUTH, AND HEARTS TO HOLD FIRMLY TO THE FAITH WE PROFESS IN YOU. WE PRAY THIS IN YOUR MOST SOVEREIGN NAME. AMEN.”

And, the goal of the pledge they all made:  “Liberty and Justice for all”.

What they did next:  They then debated who should be elected Speaker of the House.  This essential chamber vote required by our constitution has not had more than one round of voting for the last 100 years.  Four days and 13 roll call votes later Kevin McCarthy was finally elected after making substantial concessions to his ‘Never McCarthy” GOP holdouts.  During these days of internal squabble the House could not do its fundamental job of filling committee assignments, congressional oversight, receiving intelligence briefings on national security matters, and appropriating money for any national security, foreign policy, or disaster assistance-related tasks.  One of McCarthy’s concession was to allow a single member of Congress to force a vote to remove the speaker.  Which would lead to the loss of more vital time dealing with the full array of every issue related to national security – which is every issue.

What Congress will likely do next with Republican leadership:  More infighting and an even more dysfunctional congress that China’s Communist party, Iranian religious leaders, and North Korea’s dictator will see as a sign of US weakness and the instability that is inherent in adopting elements of democracy.  It would be a sure thing bet that this GOP-led congress will spend more valuable time launching oversight investigations to showcase their party's popular short-sighted narratives.  Like Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan instead of President Bush’s no-win Global War Against Terrorism (a tactic/emotion/ill-defined word that can never be defeated), the actions of Alejandro Mayorkas on immigration instead seeking the root push factors driving non-US citizens across our borders, or the President’s son’s laptop computer instead of spreading the FP stated by Trump’s CISA appointee regarding the global approach needed for national security ‘everything is connected, interdependent and vulnerable’.

If the new Congress could ever internalize the prayer they all heard at the beginning of the 118^th Congress and keep their pledge of allegiance to our nation, they might finally make Congress functional and put our democratic republic on the right track to an honorable outcome. 

Unfortunately, with their first Constitutionally required task to elect a new Speaker of the House, this Congress moved directly toward perpetuating dysfunction.  They could have elected anyone.  Not even an elected member of either party.  But they remained divided for four days confirming the comment made by the MAGA opposition before this outdated Constitution vote requirement to elect a speaker started.  He said congress has been the last to know the truth - that our government is broken.

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right.”  – H.L. Mencken

Both political parties believe they have rational principles for building muscle to please their special interest groups.  Their priority is always getting elected or re-elected.  And increasingly they work against each other.  Like a train with two engines pulling in opposite directions on an outdated rail system.  And its only two destinations are both insufficient to fulfill their pledged seven aspirations in the Constitution’s preamble.