The future of our political/governmental system

As bad as things are in Washington these days with our dysfunctional, hyper-partisan Congress, it may get worse.

A study out of Harvard, assessing attitudes toward government of people under 30 looks rather dismal.   Young people are losing the idealism that usually comes with that age -- and it affects both liberals and conservatives.

President Obama's win in 2008 owes much to the idealistic fervor and dedicated ground work of young people.   Many of them now have lost faith -- not so much in the president as in the possibility of getting anything done.

It seems futile to even hope anymore.   Look at one small example.    We thought that the almost unprecedented vacancies in federal judgeships was due to the Republicans blocking Obama's nominees.   And it is part that.   Obama's nominees who have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee have waited three times as long for hearings, on average, as did Bush's nominees.

But there's another story in this that I was unaware of.  It seems that, by longstanding tradition, the president initiates judicial nominations at the circuit court level;  and senators initiate nominees from their home states for district courts.    In some states with two Republican senators, they have simply refused to put forth any nominees.

In data compiled by the Alliance for Justice, we learn that neither Republican senator from Kansas has put forth a single name for a district court spot that has been vacant for three years and three months.   In Texas, there are seven vacancies on district courts.    Not a single nominee has been suggested by either Republican senator, despite one being vacant for nearly five years and another for three years.

Unless the American people rise up and change the system of unlimited corporate financing, partisan redistricting, and the filibuster, I don't know how things can improve -- unless we get a better class of opposition in Congress.

Reminds me of Georgia Governor Lester Maddox's famous quip in response to a national spotlight on problems in Georgia's prisons:   "The problem with Georgia's prisons is that we need a better class of prisoners."

Ralph