Nothing important will change

A senator from the Democratic Party suffers a stroke, and fits are had everywhere about the balance of power. If he dies, the Republican governor can appoint a successor, which would tip the balance back to the GOP.

How much easier, and relatively boring, it is to analyze the situation when you discern no substantive difference between the two parties. Although it gives the human part a higher priority: Let's pray for (or keep in our thoughts, if you prefer) this fragile human being and his family during the coming hours, days and weeks as doctors work to put him back together.

As for the Senate, no matter what this man's fate, it will continue to poke its nose into business that, according to the Constitution, is none of its affair. A majority of senators will continue to propose and vote for measures that confiscate your money, compromise your property rights, regulate your personal behavior, and monitor your actions, your private and public statements and even your thoughts. Some of this will be done in the name of homeland security; some of this will be done to protect the planet; some of this will be done to protect businesses that cannot campete in a free market; some of this will be done because the senators, frankly, don't believe you're capable of taking care of yourself. And a majority of senators will continue to relinquish their role and grant illegal authority to the executive branch to launch and wage illegal wars.

Now, the party affiliation of the senators plays some role in how these various indignities play out. But almost no one within either party is willing to suggest that the Constitution be taken literally. To do that would involve throwing hundreds of thousands of government employees out of work; ye gods, it would mean dismantling an empire that has taken close to a century to build.

So here's your official Montag analysis of the political impact of the senator's stroke: Nothing important will change. Short, not so sweet, but to the point. Let's hope and pray for him as a human being and forget the delusions that it has any deep political meaning.