Walter Kirn Quotes
Nothing is less suspenseful than a threat that threatens the maker of the threat at least as much as the subject of the threat. Congress hasn't learned this yet, but America has learned it over and over.
Kirn, Walter. Essay. The New Republic, 2014.
Referring to the Senate's right to ratify treaties and the effect on negotiations,
The congressman was reacting to a group staging a protest on the bridges connecting Washington DC with Virginia, thereby stopping traffic.
The Republicans in the previous decades had gone so far to the right and were so opposed to anything the government might do, that they could not support anything that might be constructive for the country if it might look like the Government was capable of something positive. They accomplished almost nothing as a result, and the nation was gridlocked.
At the time, the Republicans held the House of Representatives, but not the Senate or the Presidency. By popular vote, even the House elections had the majority voting for the Democrats, but the gerrymandering gave the Republicans more seats. A minority of the minority Republicans were Tea Party Republicans—ultra conservatives who would not compromise but who intimidated other Republicans by threatening to run candidates against them in primary elections. The result was that the Tea Party Republicans—a minority of the minority could block almost any legislation and did. That Congress passed less legislation than any in American history including the “Do Nothing Congress” of the Truman era.
Walter Norris Kirn is an American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He is the author of eight books, most notably Up in the Air, which was made into a film of the same name starring George Clooney.
