Disarray—a state of disorder; confusion. 

If you were to ask my wife for the definition of disarray, she would simply point to the top of my desk and roll her eyes. Politically speaking, my definition of disarray is the Republicans two years ago and the Democrats today. 

Two years ago the Republicans couldn’t coalesce behind Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. After numerous ballots they voted McCarthy in as Speaker, only to boot him out of office several month later. 

The Freedom Caucus of the Republican Party rebelled and disarray occurred. Today, Trump is the power player and he is essentially forcing order in the House. Trump is this power force that the nation has yet to fully comprehend. As long as he keeps marching, order seems to prevail. 

The downside is that Trump is a lame duck President and sooner or later there will be those who want his office making noise. Will that bring disarray? Perhaps, but it appears that we are going to have at least two years of Trump dominated policy. If you like the Trump policies you’re in great shape. If you and the Trump policies are at odds, the next two years will difficult.

The Democrats under Nancy Pelosi as Speaker broached no dissent. Pelosi ruled with an iron hand and whoa be unto anyone who dared to challenge her. The current minority leader, Jeffries, lacks the charisma and clout of Pelosi. 

The Democrats lost the House, Senate and the Presidency in one fateful sweep this past November. To say that the Democratic Party today is in disarray is an understatement. The House Democrats opposed the Republican continuing resolution to keep the government funded. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Schumer and nine other Democratic Senators joined the Republicans in the Senate to enact the legislation.  

Schumer’s actions have thoroughly angered the House Democrats and there is now talk of Schumer losing his Minority Chair position. The Republicans with a slim majority appear to really be in control and the Democrats are floundering. 

On the national scene no single Democrat or group of Democrats have risen to the top of the Party. The Democrats have Newsom, Harris, AOC, Pritzker and many others who are yearning for their Party’s leadership, but none risen to the top. Granted, there is a lot of time before the next election,  but there is no cohesive leadership today.  

Government works best when there is order in the elected chambers. We had order when Tip O’Neil was Speaker and Jerry Ford was the Minority Leader. We had order when Clinton was President and Gingrich was the Speaker. The nation would be much better served if we could simply regain the order those 4 gentlemen maintained.

SMASH CAKE—This past week our one year old granddaughter had her first birthday party in the back room of Sorrentos. There was the cake and the pizza and my daughter in law tells me she has a smash cake for Ellie. I had no clue what she was talking about. She then opened a box that had a 9” round cake with blue icing and the number one in yellow. You put the cake on the kid’s high chair and let her go to town. She smashes the cake and eats what her little fingers can grab. It was a rather cute mess. 

Ellie devoured the frosting. She also got her first science lesson. She mixed the blue and yellow frosting all over her face to achieve a green frosting total mess. She loved it and it did wash off.