I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
The demeanor, body language, and tone McConnell showed when he stated his agenda told me that he was driven by emotions approaching sadism and hatred. He seemed to not have any concern for, or awareness of, the consequences of Senate actions regards our economy, employment, respect for our nation by other nations or overall national strength.
This dysfunction in our Congress brings to mind the phenomena demonstrated by the well known Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 . In this experiment two groups of students were set up in a closed environment where one group were the guards and the other the prisoners. It was planned to go two weeks but it had to be stopped after 6 days as the guards became sadistic and the prisoners become depressed.
Sound like our Congress? Could the political parties be falling into roles which don't really make sense and which neglect the very great issues that face our nation at this time? Could the psychology behind these roles be the same as that found in the Stanford Prison Experiment?
A 2007 book by the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil,"could perhaps answer that question.
