Doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result?
With a few small adjustments, the American citizens have returned the same ideologues to Washington and we should all be wondering why. The dysfunction in our government was the source of some of the lowest approval ratings for Congress in our history. We were widely heard to say that we just wanted our elected officials to work together and get things done for the country. So, what went wrong?
At the end of the day, when it is time to mark the ballot or pull the lever in the voting booth, we all face the same decision and that is whether or not to elect someone who agrees with us on most of the issues – Someone who will protect us from the other person’s ideology. Our National election system is mired in issues when we should be worrying about process. If our decision had been based on which candidate was committed to “..support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,…” rather than which candidate would keep the government from going over to the “dark side” on one issue or another, would we have sent the same crop of ideologues back to Washington? I think not.
The dysfunction in our government created what is known as the “fiscal cliff” as a means of forcing our legislators to act responsibly back when they were squabbling over the debt ceiling. Now that we have returned the dysfunction to Washington we probably should expect them to be unable to agree on how to avoid it yet again. It’s not that they (or we) want to go over the “fiscal cliff,” but the dysfunction will prove too strong to avoid the experience.
Our only hope is in the Senate where the balance of power may have shifted just enough to keep a filibuster from blocking the passage of a bill to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” If the Senate can pass something, the Legislative Branch just might be able to get something to a conference committee and eventually to the President’s desk for signature. Otherwise – we just go along for the ride.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken – will you help to fix it?