What is the origin of the expression '[It is] "Katy, bar the door"' ? Is it a quotation from literature?
What does it mean? It seems to mean that the speaker is completely fine now and self-sufficient, needing neither help nor visitors. It has a hostile overtone, as 'pulling up the drawbridge', 'raising the gangplank', 'pulling up the ladder' which are all hostile expressions
It was used by a triumphant Republican. He was saying that the Party had the House,the Senate and " if we get another term in the White House, it's Katy, bar the door'"
Coldfuse, the speaker did say 'We' not 'they' so I took him to be Republican (and guessed wrongly on the meaning).If so then there is an insight in to our respective national politics . I assumed, wrongly, that he was being triumphant.So, he's either Republican but not of the Bushite persuasion or he is one of those Americans who puzzle us Britons by really wanting to avoid one party rule. We cannot imagine much worse than a government which has to negotiate with other parties just to get bills passed but Americans evidently have this worry that the other way may bring unbridled extremism . That is 'checks and balances' (i.e. where you balance things so finely that you check any progress ) which seems to work for you but would bring a fresh election within months here. As soon as the government thought it could get a working majority it would call a new election to break the 'deadlock'; its main argument would be that more people should now opt for it , not abstain or vote otherwise, so that its party could govern and its proposed laws , that so many electors had voted for, be passed. This should produce a 'better' result because enough marginal seats will switch to the party having the most seats before.
Fred, I have two suspicions on his intentions but, without the proper context, cannot tell what he was trying to convey.
The first is that there may be impending trouble in the Democratic National Committee. The party faithful cannot possibly be satisfied with the results of an election which put the opposition in charge of two branches of government with a possibility of shaping the third for the next generation.
The second is that he used the expression incorrectly. Such expressions tends to become corrupted with time. My fifteen year old son says "I'm down with that" to express approval. In my day, the meaning would have been the opposite. If this is the case, the partisan was likely being overly optimistic about Republican opportunities given the election results.
My own concern here is that the checkbook will not be managed well at a time when moderation in spending is appropriate.
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. That is 'checks and balances' (i.e. where you balance things so finely that you check any progress 
) which seems to work for you but would bring a fresh election within months here. As soon as the government thought it could get a working majority it would call a new election to break the 'deadlock'; its main argument would be that more people should now opt for it , not abstain or vote otherwise, so that its party could govern and its proposed laws , that so many electors had voted for, be passed. This should produce a 'better' result because enough marginal seats will switch to the party having the most seats before.
