I am an avid Facebook user where I find brief daily escapes to interact with friends faith, family, wine, science and other things about which I have passion. The topic I NEVER discuss Facebook is politics because there is no other topic so polarizing and frankly damaging to friendships as political opinion. Sadly the inability of the human race to engage in meaningful discussion with the purpose of true solution for the whole of society (particularly regarding anything government....at any level) is at the root of all societal problems. It is heartbreaking.
Today (October 1, 2013) the Federal government shut down. It is the first government shutdown in 17 years. In reality the entire government hasn't shut down as the shutdown does not impact "essential" services (although how what is or isn't "essential" is determined in not clear to me). I do know that Congress is still "working" while hundreds of thousands of Federal employees are for the time being will not get paid salaries essential for the care of their and their family's well being.
At some level I feel I should be angry about our government's ability to work this out. After all, they are adults.....right? However, the reality is....for good or for bad....I am simply numbed to our government's dysfunctionality and if anything find it cynically funny. This is an attitude perhaps spawned by any real ability to do anything about the dysfunctionality. Yes, I can write, call, stand on a rooftop and make noise at my "elected" officials. The problem is I experience enough form letters, spam email, and computer generated voices from people who really don't listen to me as it is.
This current shutdown is largely a tug-o-war about healthcare reform (i.e. "Obamacare"). A core group of republicans want to do away with it while the president and most democrats see the reform as a step towards improving healthcare for the masses. One extreme tugging against the other with no real desire for compromise. A snapshot of the human race. I am not totally sold on Obamacare. There are a lot of things about it I do not like. However, it is difficult to argue against the fact that healthcare in American needs to be addressed. With this in mind the logical thing would be for Congress and the President to roll up their sleeves and begin the process of tweaking the plan to make it better. Instead, everyone decides to take their toys and go home. In the end nothing gets done.
It is a mistake to place blame on one side or the other (democrats vs. republicans). This is everyones fault. It is the fault of elected officials on both sides for effectively not doing what they were elected to do......govern effectively. Instead this is a choice to govern by not governing. It is the fault of the American people. We as a society do not take our elections seriously enough. We vote selfishly, with our decisions largely driven by single issues without consideration of the totality of how someone will actually conduct an office. It may be that we have gotten to the point where the resulting dysfunctionality is cemented in place.
There is, I believe, a fix for all this but I have no clue how it would be implemented. The fix requires that we change our system to open up meaningful political office to a broader range of people (i.e. non-millionaires) and remove the economic influence of special interest groups. Both could be accomplished by outlawing private political contributions to campaigns. Get rid of the war chests designed to support or defeat single selfish issues. Common forums, accessible to any candidate where we can learn about their thoughts and philosophies would even the playing field and allow anyone with a vision, like it or not, to participate. Second, be proactive in promoting (even requiring execution of) the right to vote. My youngest son has often complained about the political climate and my common response is that if his generation actively exercised their right to vote they could change the country. After all, there are a lot more voters in his age group than in mine. Could we begin programs that would both educate young voters and promote (actually allow) voting on high school and college campuses? Universal term limits might be a third change that would help but I need to think about this a bit more.
Okay, I think I have written enough for this morning. Apologies if my thoughts lacked some linearity...but after all.....these are random thought.
Cheers!
