A friend used to say; “When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” He was so right. Over the years I have witnessed this sort of behavior repeatedly. Another friend had a different way of phrasing the proverb as it related to the behavior of management at his company when he would say, “When they don’t know what they’re doing – they do what they know.” Both clever and both true. All of us have watched as people try over and over to get something to work by doing something they have already learned won’t get the job done.
When it comes to immigration reform, the one thing we know won’t get anything done is waiting for the Legislative Branch to act. The Left wants some form of “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants who are already here, working hard, and being productive. The Right sees “amnesty” as a reward for making a bad life decision and wants nothing to do with it. It is just another power struggle between the political parties and they’re not going to budge away from their ideological positions.
And there are lots of other things our country needs to have done that are caught in the same sort of ideological power struggle between the political parties. Our infrastructure is crumbling everywhere, and the Legislature sits on their hands. Our nuclear waste stockpile has needed legislative work for decades, but they sit on their hands. Our national healthcare system could use some adjustment (I’m not talking about throwing it away completely), but they sit on their hands for fear of letting the other side have anything that might remotely look like a win.
In Washington it seems that if there is a win for one side there is clearly a loss for the other side. Winning a part of your goals through compromise is considered losing because it means the other side has something to brag about and that just can’t happen so compromise is out of the question.
I’ve written before that without compromise there can be no democracy because democracy is all about finding the solution to a legislative problem that satisfies the majority of the voters. Our republican democracy is no different in this respect because like other forms of democracy we need to find the majority to do anything. Therefore, the current obstructionist approach to pretty much everything in the Legislature is undemocratic – it is un-American. Any way I slice it, if you stand in the way of our democracy – you stand in the way of America and that is un-American.
DON’T MISUNDERSTAND! When I say our Legislature is un-American, I mean both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans alike. Their rigid ideological stance on everything is preventing America from getting anything meaningful done and that is un-American.
Yell at the TV if that makes you feel better. Argue with the other side if that helps but save plenty of blame for the face in the mirror because that is the only person who you can influence to change the system. You should be particularly harsh with the face in the mirror if that voter didn’t vote in the last election. If “We the people” want our government to work for us, “We the people” must take it back from the political parties, and other factions of all kinds. “We the people” are the voters! “We the people” are the constituents! “We the people” are the foundation for our government. When “We the people” decide to throw out the politicians who are taking the special interest money, we will start to see the government our Founding Fathers had in mind.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken, will you help to fix it? If you haven’t read A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed?, you’re not prepared for the job.
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