Oh, it won’t rain like that again.
That’s what was said a couple of weeks ago as the guy sucked the soak out of the carpets in the lower part of my house. And it didn’t…until yesterday, when they were nearly dry. Goodbye carpets. Hello tile. Goodbye money. Hello home improvement loan. Goodbye summer. Hello climate change. Shocking, this new reality, isn’t it?
I don’t know why but that makes me think of the reality in congress, where many still don’t buy into the role humans have played in climate change. I know, they’ve agreed to keep the government open until December 11. John Boehner’s parting gift. But there are 247 Republicans and 188 Democrats in the House of Representatives (there are no independents or members of other parties in there.) 218 makes a majority
The Republicans will try to choose a new leader. That leader may not have total support in his or her own party. By all counts, there are more than 50 but less than 75 House Republicans on the far right controlling their counterparts, the more moderate (or less radical) ones who might actually like to take part in governing, but fear primary election challenges from the far right too much to actually make any effort to do something worthwhile.
Isn’t there some possibility for a new coalition of the center to try to make something work? We’ve seen odder coalitions come about…right here in Ulster County, where the Democrats have a sliver of a majority, John Parete took three Democratic votes and got the Republicans to join with him and name him Chairman. And not that I’d hold them up as a paragon of virtue, five Democrats in the State Senate, for a smidgeon of power, bolted the caucus and allowed the Republicans to gain the majority.
In other systems, coalition governments are necessary and common. And yet, small bands of radicals, left and right, can sometimes be the lynchpin of them and cause havoc.
Some sort of coalition that could come together over the center would be welcome. It would need courageous politicians, those who would work to retain their seats and could reach across the aisle to get things done.
And maybe they could make the much needed rain come down in a gentler fashion, over a longer period of time.
Join the family! 
