A Republican Senate?

At first glance, a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate might not be a big deal.  After all, the Grand Old Party controlled the upper chamber of Congress for twelve years beginning in 1995, and the country survived that.  Besides, the Republicans, thanks in part to the Tea Party wave of 2010, have 24 U.S. Senate seats to defend in 2016 to the Democrats' ten, and if the Rs win eight Senate seats this year, as expected, the Democrats will only need four seats to regain the Senate two years hence.  So should we worry?

Yes, we should.

First of all, the Republican Senate majority that existed from 1995 to 2007 had its share of nimrods, but no one as stupid or as toxic as a Mike Lee or a Ted Cruz in its ranks.  The current Senate Republican caucus is full of reactionaries that make old-timers like Robert Dole and Trent Lott look like liberals.  (Dole defended Social Security; Lott supported Amtrak.)  Second, there was no Citizens United ruling from the Supreme Court back then allowing billionaires like Sheldon Adelson or the Koch boys, Chuck and Dave (still no word from sister Vera), to spend a ton of money or even threaten to spend a ton of money to defeat any politician who doesn't share their views.  (The only bright side here is that spending lots of money doesn't always work.  Adelson himself, being a casino mogul, admitted as much in November 2012 after President Obama was re-elected; as a gambler, he knows that sometimes you don't get a payoff.  But spending lots of money probably works ninety percent of the time.) 

Secondly, the Senate deals with treaties.  The current Senate hasn't been able to ratify treaties like the one guaranteeing the international rights of the disabled, which former Senator Dole supported, because of Tea Party hostility to internationalism.  If these morons made America look like foolish churls and churlish fools to the rest of the world as part of a minority, imagine how much damage they could do to this country's already tarnished reputation abroad as part of the majority.  

Thirdly, Republican Senate committees will join Republican House committees in investigating the White House to the point of exhaustion to find something to impeach Obama on.  Again, this will make us look worse abroad than we already do, and it will expend a lot of energy best spent solving the nation's (many) problems. 

Fourth, don't expect Democrats in the Senate to filibuster any GOP initiative they do not like.  Senate Democrats, as a minority, can't block the Republicans the way the Senate Republican minority has blocked the Democrats; the Senate Republican caucus, when in the majority, has a reputation for making the Democrats put up and shut up, rendering them able to speak only when spoken to (and thus ignoring them).  They'll just ram the Tea Party agenda right through, though little if any of it will get Obama's signature.  But a virtually unimpeded Senate GOP majority can still do a lot of damage.  

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been rumored to be thinking of allowing the Republicans to take over the Senate - essentially "throwing the race" to them. Reid, whose political and organizing skills have saved the Democrats' bacon in the upper chamber before, thinks that a Congress controlled entirely by the GOP would take a lot of blame for congressional inaction and ineptitude by being in control of everything and would so be weakened in the 2016 elections.  This is a dangerous strategy.  Republicans have nominated some professional, smooth-talking candidates who appear reasonable but are no less lunkheaded than your typical John Bircher, and they have a knack for avoiding the act of paying a political price for opposing popular legislation and deflecting blame for congressional inertia to the Democrats.  Give them an inch, they'll take more than a mile.

If the Republicans do win the Senate this year, yes, worry. It's going to be a long two years.  Me, I am so disgusted with these so-called United States, I don't care anymore if Republicans do win the Senate.

Just don't let Scott Brown win in New Hampshire.