By the time you read this I suspect that a short-term compromise has finally been reached to fund the government. But as I write, the federal government has been shut down for Forty-four days. It is the longest shutdown in history. Unfortunately, it is not an isolated event, but it is emblematic of how our government is functioning.
In too many ways it is simply dysfunctional.
Here is a brilliantly simple explanation of what has happened from Alex Buscemi of The Builders Movement (abuscemi@buildersmovement.org).
The government shutdown is basically America’s version of parents fighting while the kids hide upstairs, wondering when dinner will be ready. Mom and Dad (that’s Congress) are too busy screaming at each other over who “started it” to actually parent. Meanwhile, the kids (that’s us) are left scrounging the pantry, surviving on crushed-up Triscuits from the bottom of the box.
Millions of people were left waiting on delayed food assistance, hundreds of thousands of federal employees were not getting a paycheck, and travelers were left wondering if they could safely fly as air traffic controllers are among the unpaid.
How could this happen? I pay my taxes, and I suspect you do too. It happened because Congress could not agree on a budget. So, it was not passed, not even a short-term resolution could be passed. It is the result of an ill-fated game of chicken, a silly partisan game that hurts lots of real people. They (in this case, the Democrats) could have passed the Continuing Resolution which would have kept funding at its current level and then had the much-needed debate about healthcare. However, both parties have been guilty of playing this game in the past.
I think it is the members of Congress whose paycheck should be withheld. They are the ones not doing their job. Part of their job is appropriations and they failed miserably.
It happened because politics is more important than people. On bill after bill, the Republicans vote as a block and so do the Democrats. The Senate is split 53 Republican and 47 Democrats. It takes sixty senators to pass legislation.
Our two-party system is not constitutionally mandated. As a matter of fact, our first and only independent president, George Washington, warned us about them.
He famously expressed his opinion of political policies in his farewell address.
The spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the publicadministration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against the another, foments occasional riot and insurrection.
His prophetic words sound more like a current news report than a historical document/
It seems unlikely one party would be right on everything and the other one wrong every time. What are the odds?
Each party would have us believe that they are trying to save America and the other is trying to destroy it; and people believe it. The purpose of political parties is to amass power and money, so their candidates get elected and their policies get enacted and thousands of federal employees keep their jobs or get new jobs through a change in administration.
Their message is one of fear and hate. Fear about how the other party Is trying to destroy their beloved nation and hate and vilification about how bad, how evil, and how un-American their opponents are.
America has been built upon civil discourse. Our founders knew there would be disagreements. They actually made it difficult to pass legislation and they wanted to protect of the minority view so that it got a hearing. Negotiation is absolutely essential for us to function.
Now negotiation, compromise, and civility are as out of fashion as the leisure suit. The very principles that our nation was founded on, and the very core of our constitutional operating system are looked upon with as a sign of weakness and disloyalty.
So, here we are. Legislators are too busy repeating their increasingly extreme party mantra, too busy vilifying colleagues who differ, too busy shamelessly gerrymandering districts, too busy running for re-election, too busy fundraising, too busy to hold the executive branch in check, and too busy to simply do the people’s business (their job).
The result is our country gets mired down in crisis after crisis. Our ability to respond to a growing array of timely challenges is frozen. The can keeps getting kicked down the down the road. We have drifted into tribalism and regionalism. Neighbor hates neighbor because he has the nerve to have a different opinion on politics and the very fabric that holds us together is alarmingly frayed.
What can we do?
Get out of the echo chamber. The easiest thing to do is confine ourselves to an echo chamber of people with like experiences and opinions, but we will never learn or grow there. It is not heresy to listen to someone who has a different opinion. To not do so is actually naïve and narrow-minded. We might not like somethings someone says and believes, but they may have a different experience and perspective that deserves hearing.
“Make our own sausage.” Sauage is made from lots of different ingredients and opinions on important issues are best if based on information from several varied sources. I know it is easier to follow what someone else believes than to gather our own information and form our own opinion, but everyone has blind spots. Unfortunately, there is a whole cadre of politicos and media types who make big money by projecting a particular opinion rather than conveying solid information from various sources. Their job is to keep the base outraged at their opponents and blind to the misgivings of their chosen politician.
Remember relationships are more important than politics. The most heartbreaking thing about what is happening is that relationships have been fractured because two people have different political opinions.
There are a lot of people who I just don’t understand. Why would they say that? Why would they do that? Why do they think that way? At times I feel that way about the some of the people closest to me.
Love is stronger than that. Love kicks in when we don’t understand. You don’t have to agree with someone to listen and treat them with respect.
Please contact me at glennhager1@gmail.com or find me at glennhager.com or on Facebook.
