• Indecipherable Law

      Some pundits claim that the Democrats lost seats Tuesday because they haven't done a good job explaining their wonderful new laws.  In USA Today, Ross Baker alleges that there was  "an enduring Democratic blunder: talking over the heads of the American people" ("Why the Democrats were hammered," Nov. 3).

      I like Don Boudreau's response to that:

      "Ummm.  No.

      The "enduring Democratic blunder" (often repeated by the GOP) is to enact indecipherably complex and intricate statutes aimed at achieving impossible outcomes.  It's the ludicrous convolution of such legislation that is "over the heads of the American people."  And it's over their heads not because the American people are dumb but because no one - not even the geniuses on the Hill - can possibly absorb the full meaning of the words in the statutes, much less anticipate the millions of unforeseen consequences, large and tiny, that are unleashed by the social engineering ..."