If you had any real hope of Congress doing something that is good for you, your family, or society, this week shows what foolishness that was.

It isn’t even providing good entertainment! Just doing the same thing over and over, proving that a House of Representatives controlled one old party (the GOP) will be no change from control by the other old party.

The best thing that we can say here at TPOL about this stupid little game is that millions of Americans are again seeing that Congress and its members have no honor and no principles. That their true commitment is not to those they supposedly represent, but to power, prestige, and above all, business as usual.

In so many words, Congress is worthless. It has no redeeming value. Its corruption has reached a nadir.

But in that worthlessness, what does it do? It reflects the electorate. Not just the people that voted them in, but the people who allowed the system to deteriorate to the degree it has, and who refuse to get off their rear ends to do anything to fix it. The society has declined sufficiently that the old system – the Constitution and the remnants of republican government – is no longer capable of functioning, let alone improving matters.

And they did it to themselves, together with the voters and businesses: they abandoned fundamental principles of liberty, of freedom, of responsibility, of accountability.

Of course, the situation will appear to have been overcome, or at least Congress will seem to have sidestepped the mess, at least in the near term. Congress – and the American people as a whole – will pretend that they can have business as usual. But the damage is almost certainly irreparable.