Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the time today to actually accomplish something other than living out my New Year's resolution of not being so nice to everyone. I write about politics on Mondays but I really have nothing to say about the biggest political story of the past week. Giving myself license to write about gun violence would only result in me making inappropriate jokes and most likely going off on Sarah Palin, which by now should be recognized as laziness. I also won't tell you the tale of my dream from last night where Obama was walking by me and I got in a conversation with Spike Lee instead. Instead, let's make another turn and talk about the action of government in the new year.
The last year was marked by inefficiency in government. The Obama administration will tell you how much was accomplished. DADT was repealed, but that was a completely obvious decision made partisan only for shits and giggles. The Health Care law will be scrutinized and most likely drawn out, or rejected by some Podunk state I reside in. Every measure taken by the government to alleviate the stress of recession was seen as negative or self-serving resulting in the always inevitable midterm victory by the stronger party, despite the GOP lacking anything resembling leadership or intelligence. So 2010 was a failure, almost epic in every fashion, and 2011 started tragically in almost the worst fashion possible, save Gabrielle Giffords also perishing in the shooting. However, it gave the idiots something to look at, and time to refocus their views.
I'm not predicting 2011 to be all peachy keen in the grand arena of Congress, but perhaps the ever-building vitriol will dissipate slightly at least for the near future. I'm not a Congressional historian by any means, but I would say that during my lifetime the feelings extended across the aisle have never been as hateful as now, even during the farcical impeachment proceedings of the mid-nineties. Certainly, no one is being caned so it hasn't quite matched the Antebellum Congress, but I don't foresee a civil war anytime in the near future either.
With the ousting of many moderates on both sides, the circumstances that have fueled such political hatred may have actually got worse. Even worse some of the new congressmen are the types that will bark loud with little political bite, deepening the chasm that the majority of the country resides in. However, I will accept that there are certain ways to cross the chasm to find agreement. However, some of the bridges are treacherous, some are one-way zip-lines that cannot be traversed back to your side. Both sides want to lower taxes, neither should and specifically not lowering taxes to those same men we bailed out financially over the past couple of years. Both sides wish to lower the deficit and do away with deficit spending. Republicans and Democrats both wish to make cuts in essential programs Medicare and Education specifically. (I would include Social Security, but that dinosaur isn't long for this world the way we spend now so no use trying to save it.)
Where can the sides safely agree? How about a simple act? Civility. Etiquette. Reason. Fair political discourse. These are simple things, second nature. You're taught in first grade or even before that "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything." Now supposedly, as adults, we have learned how to criticize each other constructively. This allows us to change our views, our actions, and our beliefs to better suit the purpose that each side wishes to achieve. The problem is that no criticism of the past year has been constructive. I for one never offer any, preferring to criticize John Boehner spray tans rather than policy faults, but I also am not a US Congressman and therefore have no higher standard or responsibility thrust upon me. We can only hope that at some point both sides realize that they are adults and their petty rhetoric, ridiculous stalling, and immature finger pointing are childish at best and destructive at worst. Or they can hope again that the Taco Bell Supreme Court manages to make another idiotic ruling that makes their year look productive. Either way, I'll be delightfully disappointed.
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