I’ve held off on this
post for over a week. Not because I was
too busy celebrating over the major sweeps Democrats made…though I was
celebrating. Repeatedly, with no sign of
a diminishing enthusiasm. My team won,
cleaned up in almost every section of the state, and won the presidential
election with room to spare. Fantastic…now
go lead.
After looking at this
election, my thought is simple: what’s really changed? We have a senate minority leader who still
thinks he’s in the majority, a House of Representatives that is still in lock
step amongst party lines, and neither part of congress can seem to agree on
what’s going to be done about anything. A
week has gone by, and I can visualize two-hundred-plus weeks in the future of
the population asking why are we paying taxes?
For the honor of hearing a hundred senators say something must be done
and then sit there? Have a president
demand reforms the populace agrees with, but will never pass because they don’t
poll well enough nationwide?
We are a country
divided. First off on that note,
good. Differing opinions rock, that’s
how policies are refined. If we can have
two positions on an issue, I’m sure we could find a third. But we are not looking at differing policies,
but two mountains staring at each other across a valley. They won’t move any which way, just stands as
the wind blows by, confident of their own self-importance. Meanwhile the world goes on.
We are facing huge and
immediate dangers in this country. Foremost
is the fiscal cliff, President Bush’s tax cuts are set to expire at the end of
this calendar year. Suddenly everyone will turn around and notice
that their money isn’t theirs anymore, but it’s with a government that has no
clue about what to spend this new money on.
President Obama is demanding that people making over a quarter of a
million dollars a year should pay more taxes.
Congressional Republicans claim the president has not given congress a
viable plan. Rock, hard place, and the
American people are caught right in the middle.
This isn’t a simple
decision. Is there a need for more taxes
on the extremely wealthy? Yes, if only
so we can start balancing a budget, get our country back where it belongs, and
start removing the national debt from our minds. But at the same time, there are entitlements
that need to be removed, reformed and restructured. So both sides are right, and both sides are
wrong. How this economic decision is
made isn’t the simple decision. But making that decision, actually
committing to doing something other than complain that nothing is being done,
that is quite simple. Politicians weren’t
elected just so they could be on TV twenty-four seven and have a cool
letterhead. They are expected to make
actual decisions.
We have a fantastic
government, capable of extraordinary things.
But first it needs to stop screaming at itself.
Stay
strange.
“Democracy is the worst form of
government…except for all those others that have been tried.”
-
Winston Churchill
