Conservatives, Liberals, and Some Biscayne Park Residents. Egg On Faces.

War was being waged in Washington, DC.  There's news, however, of a kind of victory.  Senate Repubicans had been filibustering, to prevent confirmation of a large group of Executive Branch appointees.  Some were Cabinet and Department-level people, and some were judges.  The logjam broke yesterday, the result of a combination of threats and compromise, and Republicans have ended their strike against the appointments and the President.  Filibuster is not nice, but it's a time-honored tool for exerting pressure, to get one concession or another, or to stop something terrible from happening.  The problem with this filibuster is that having agreed to end it, Senate Republicans then approved all the appointees.  Overwhelmingly.  So they didn't get anything, and they didn't want anything.  All they were doing was obstructing.  It was reportedly John McCain who finally told them to knock it off, and grow up.

In the meantime, Senate (and all other) Democrats cried every day about how Republicans weren't playing nice, and were hogging the game.  They pleaded with their faithful to complain, make calls, write letters, sign petitions, demanding that this childish and obstinate filibuster maneuver stop right this minute, so the good work of government could proceed.  The problem with this portrayal of righteous indignation is that the very same liberals were, at the same moment, wildly celebrating Wendy Davis' victory over the suppressive forces in the Texas State House.  Her tool?  The filibuster.  You can't have it both ways, people.

And Davis' crusade was to combat Texas Republicans' attempt to pass a law approving all abortions up to 20 weeks and some after that.  Davis, and liberals in general, got so caught up fighting Republicans over abortion that they assumed any Republican position, or even offer, was an attempt to restrict rights.  They couldn't stop to realize that Republicans were giving them a massive concession and a massive gift, which they should have accepted with deep gratitude.  It turned out, when you took a step back and looked at it, that liberals were fighting conservatives over abortion, because that's what they do.  The fight wasn't about anything.  It was fighting for the sake of fighting.  Very much, come to think of it, like the ancient and opaquely mysterious Hatfield/McCoy feud.

Sadly, some of us in BP have that aimless and mindless reflex to dispute, too.  "Whatever you want, there must be something wrong with it."  "The answer is no; what's the question."  It's every bit as primitive, pointless, and non-productive as it sounds like it is.  The commonest set-up is claiming to be a victim, or advocating for someone else who claims to be a victim, and mounting a crusade of liberation on behalf of the poor, downtrodden soul.  In the recent past, it was about FPL and their distribution trunks, then FPL again and the Franchise Agreement, then FPL Chapter 3 and the concrete poles.  Imagine those bullies, coming in here, providing the electricity we crave, and then charging us one of the lowest rates in the country for it.  And of course, the evil juggernaut of the majority of the last Commission.  It shifted for a little while to the big, bad City of North Miami, and its abusive policy of charging us a low rate for our water.  Now, it's the Codes and how they victimize poor people.  Like speed limits victimize people who are in a hurry.  The cruelty of it all.  All courageous and meaningless crusades.

And as in the cases of Senate Republicans, and Texas (and other) Democrats, and Biscayne Park little guys, the fights aren't really about anything.  They're posturing, and the postures are empty.  No one wins, because there's nothing to win, and everyone loses.  Oh, you found a bogeyman du jour?  Who cares?  Bogeymen are only inventions of children anyway.  Maybe we all just need to grow up.