Short-Term Politics Won’t Correct America
In his first State of the Union Address, President Obama expressed his opinions on what needed to be done over the next year to correct the economic crisis in the United States. While a lot of commentators are arguing about the different policies Obama argued for in his speech, it was Obama’s direct attention urging both parties – Democrats and Republicans – to do their part in getting things done in Congress that stood out for me.
“To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town – a super majority – then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”
For too long, the two parties have spent more time worrying about how they can beat each other and less time on what they can do to help the American people. With the economy still in shambles, the war in Afghanistan being renewed with a surge of soldiers and the deficit and debt bloated to extremes, the last thing America needs is considerably hostile partisan battles.
What the American people need now is for the American political parties to work together on getting things done. They aren’t going to agree all the time. That’s fine. However, my big reason for supporting Scott Brown was that it would prevent the Democrats from having their super majority. Now that the Republicans have taken that super majority away, they need to do their part in ensuring that bills get passed that are most beneficial to the American people.
Obama said something that I have been feeling for quite some time. Politicians have become so concerned with getting reelected that they spend so much of their time trying to bash the opposite side that they don’t get anything done.
When President Obama mentioned his plan to freeze the budget, instead of offering opinions on what else could be done, the Michael Steel, one of Representative John Boehner’s spokesmen said, “Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest.”
How does that help? How does it give the American people faith that their elected officials are going to do any good?
If nothing changes, the Democratic Party will lose in the elections come November. While Republicans might love that, the same thing will happen to the Republicans when the time came for the elections of 2012 or 2014. The Democrats will turn around and throw their insults and mudslinging comments at the Republicans. This, in turn, will create resentment towards the Republicans and the Democrats will win again.
This vicious cycle will continue to steal faith and hope from the American people that their elected officials are doing anything to benefit them.
To correct this, the two major parties in American politics need to start working together to fix issues. That means that the Democrats need to stop their deals done behind closed doors. That also means that the Republicans cannot continue being the party of no. If both parties can work together on getting important issues done, we won’t have ridiculous health care bills that are totally far fetched. At the same time, though, we might be able to get a lot more fiscal responsibility in Congress.
However, if both parties continue their attempts at short-term politics rather than leadership, faith in the American government will continue to dwindle until it doesn’t last any more. That isn’t beneficial for anyone.
It’s just sick to me, to see people acting like the past doesn’t exist. Like we’re not supposed to look to the past in order to avoid creating the same mistakes that lead to this economic downturn…But according the right, “voters aren’t buying that story anymore.”
What story?! That Bush totally screwed American middle class and lower class families over, put Wall St. on a pedestal, and allowed the health care industry to boom so out of control that competition CAN’T even exist…he screwed 98% of Americans over on day at a time, and we’re NOT supposed to look back at how it all happened??
It’s the same thing over and over…but this year, it’s just really become more of a “who can belittle who the most” contest….the arguments being thrown around have NOTHING to do with policy, other than claiming they don’t like it and that Obama is a socialist who wants to create secret police and take our guns away…none of these people are aware of the facts….I mean, gun control has LOOSENED since Obama took office. Some states now allow guns in bars and on trains.
The racist tension and these people who believe everything that happens stems from a conspiracy are actively taking our country to a new low and they don’t care who is affected in the process.
We’ve got almost EVERY SINGLE Republican out there, boasting about how the “stimulus hasn’t worked” how it “hasn’t created one job,” THEN they’re taking credit for 100 jobs here…100 more jobs there….they act like they are funding these projects from their own damn pocketbook or something…
Are people REALLY THIS STUPID? I’d like to think my country is educated to the point of RESEARCHING claims before believing them…..you know, the Republicans are the ones who claim we’re supposed to question our gov’t….but where are they when it comes to questioning their own party? These guys are downright LYING to us with a STRAIGHT FACE!! Come on….
We’re starting to see that not all people take this HATRED spewing from the likes of Beck and Hannity in stride….I’d like to think most people watch for entertainment, but after this domestic terrorist that crashed into the IRS yesterday, after that Jewish Center shooting, that Right-Wing Extremism is OUT OF CONTROL and with people like Beck encouraging violence, it is only a MATTER OF TIME before another wingnut decides to take more innocent lives with him…
It’s so funny….how Republicans can abuse the filibuster and hold up nominees to the point where legislation has slowed to a crawl and the business of the people can’t happen….THEN go and say Obama hasn’t accomplished anything…..
It’s like they’re running on a campaign that assures voters Obama fails….these people voting Republican are SO STUPID they don’t even realize they’re voting AGAINST THEMSELVES…
Education is the key…stupidity would be the only reason to believe any claims politicians make without fact-checking for yourself. Either Democratic or Republican. It’s just been this past year that Democrats have been countering Republicans with facts instead of emotional diatribes…
I’d like to see Republicans go back to their core political beliefs (their social ethics are a sham)…tey’d actually get some respect at least….my Papa would be ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE if he knew how low the GOP has stooped, since Obama was elected, in order to get a few votes…
I have to agree with you on so many of your points. The one that really stands out for me, though, is how they are doing anything they possibly can to stop Obama. That doesn’t help America. If Obama is doing something bad, fine, try and prevent it. But, if you are stopping it simply because he is a Democrat and you want to try and win seats back in the mid-term elections, it’s just sad. The truth is, it really has turned into, “how can we get power back?” There is no interest in really doing good for Americans. Perhaps they’ll learn how to fix their problems and begin to do for America and less for themselves.