Is Alice In Wonderland a political book? I’m reading it now (never read it as a kid) and it seems almost like the inspiration for everything Orwell wrote.

The problem here is that Congress, which was originally conceived of as a major check on the executive, has almost wilted into either a cheerleading squad, or at best an intellectual debate club with no real force behind it. This wasn’t always the case. In the old days, when Congress was run by ruthlessly corrupt leaders like Johnson, Rayburn, etc., the Congress had considerable spine and power. Somehow, it simply abandoned that as “too undemocratic”. But there’s something to be said for the old political machines, they at least kept people in line, even the leaders. Perhaps we could attribute the end of this to Vietnam, which so splintered politics as to make party loyalty untenable for many, and post-watergate reforms, which did away with political bosses and their machines. Obama has to find a new way to tether the executive to real popular power, because I don’t see congress being the vehicle for that. It will be interesting to see how his internet populist grass roots movement can figure into this.