Coalition Government

Mike Johnson suddenly got it.

The accidental Speaker of the House was, shall we say, reluctant to provide military aid for Ukraine. Then two things happened.  The first thing is that Johnson saw intelligence that showed that Ukraine would end likely end up as a republic in the Russian Federation if it didn't get U.S. aid and that Poland or Lithuania might be next.  The second thing is that one of Johnson's sns has been accepted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the possibility of this son getting into a war in Eastern Europe suddenly got real.  He placed the billon the floor and it passed with the votes of anti-Trump Republicans and Democrats.  

Thus the Democrats and the non-MAGA Republican wing have formed a coalition government in the House of Representatives.

The U.S. constitutional system, of course, isn't meant to support coalition governments, at least not in the European sense. In European countries, multiple parties win seats in Parliament and there is usually no clear-cut majority, so likeminded parties have to form a coalition to pick a prime minister to present his or her credentials to the head of state.  Here, two parties win seats in the House and the Senate and partisan majorities run the shows.  The President - both the head of government and the head of state - is separately elected.   But it is possible for  two of a minimum of three parties to win enough seats in either House of Congress to deny the party that gets the most seats a majority.  That happened in the 34th Congress of 1855 and 1856, when the Democrats lost control of the House in the 1854 midterms and the Whig Party was ceding the role of opposition to the Democrats to the new Republican Party and the American, or Know-Nothing, Party.  The Republicans got the most House seats but not a majority, so the Republicans and the Know-Nothings, along with Whigs and other minor parties, formed a coalition to run the House.

Such deal-making is normal when ther eare three or more parties, but the fact that we're seeing something similar in the 118th Congress when there are only two parties and the Democratic minority is united says a lot about how fractured the Republican Party is.

And the problem is not Mike Johnson.

The Sun Never Sets?

For the first time since World War II, a coalition government has been formed in Great Britain out of a failure of the parliamentary elections to produce a majority in the House of Commons. The result is an unlikely alliance between the center-right Conservatives and the left-leaning Liberal Democrats. New Prime Minister David Cameron has appointed Liberal Democrat party leader Nick Clegg as his deputy, and the Cabinet has been divided among members of both parties. The loss of confidence in Labour resulted in their failure to cut a deal with the Liberal Democrats, who held the balance of power, and the resignation of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown as Labour Party leader.

Putting country over partisan interests (unheard of in America these days), Cameron has achieved what Barack Obama in the United States has failed to do - achieve a bipartisan plan to tackle the economy. Cameron and Clegg had to give up various pledges from their campaigns, such as the Conservatives's promise to raise inheritance tax thresholds and the Liberal Democrats's desire to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants. But the Liberal Democrats get, among other things, a tax-free allowance on income taxes up to £10,000 ($14,861) and a capital gains tax increase (you will never see that in America). The Conservatives have won on one of their biggest goals, an attempt to slash the tackle the £160 billion ($237.8 billion) national budget deficit with £6 billion ($8.92 billion) in spending cuts.

On foreign affairs, Cameron is committed to maintaining a British presence in Afghanistan to help the Americans establish stability in that country, even though the war is increasingly unpopular in both Britain and the U.S. Nick Clegg and his "Lib Dems" have had to bend on their pledges to cede additional powers to the European Union, as the more skeptical Cameron is afraid (understandably so, given the turmoil in the Eurozone of late) of surrendering more British sovereignty.

So, when do the Limeys make the transition to a new government? They already have. Number 10 Downing Street is clear of Brown's belongings, and the Camerons have moved in. The Brits don't make a fuss about a new prime minister with galas, inaugural ceremonies, or processions like we do with a new President. The Brits save that stuff for the monarchy. (Says more about us than them, doesn't it?)

Once installed as the new prime minister of Great Britain, David Cameron spoke to the British people and, having apparently picked up a bad American habit of political hyperbole, declared that Britain's best days "lie ahead."

Wait. Britain's best days "lie ahead?" Hello? They lost their empire! Notice the dearth of warships bearing the Union Jack compared to those flying the Stars and Stripes? Swinging London took its last swing decades ago! British popular music has never been so irrelevant! The Brits don't even make their own cars anymore; all their automotive brands are foreign-owned! And the U.K.'s best days are still ahead?

Oh well, maybe Cameron's performance in office will revive British comedy. :-D