On another blog site I spend time on, I found a post that does a good job of illustrating one of the major problems in American politics. The author asks why “the left” is “so stupid.” According to the post, the left is shooting itself in the foot by “bashing” President Obama and not simply blindly supporting every action he or any other Democrat takes. Since Democrats have a fragile hold on a Congressional majority, anyone not following the party line is doing the GOP’s bidding, much like a vote for Ralph Nader was a vote for George W. Bush.
Sadly, during an election year, this particular rhetoric is typical. But it raises a valuable question about the spectacle we call politics: What’s the point of losing sleep and putting all our time and effort into do-nothing legislation which will be watered down by a self interested opposition party (be it a Democratic or Republican one) to the point of having very little (albeit some) affect on actual common people? Do we really feel so bad about our political system that we’re just desperate to pat ourselves on the back and say “mission accomplished?”
Probably.
In a supposedly Democratic society, it’s our job and duty as citizens to question presidents, legislators, justices, everyone – whether they’re “on our side” politically or not. We’ve been playing the “let’s vote for the lesser of two evils” game instead for longer than I’ve been alive. The reason why the right wing garnered the power they have presently isn’t only because its members all goosestep to the same beat, but because little by little, they force concessions and we start marching alongside them. Instead of sticking to our principles and trying to invite people to sit on the same side of the table, we’ve allowed hard right extremists to bully us into capitulating to their needs.
In a Democracy, meeting the needs of the people should take precedence over politics. This means compromises and finding middle grounds, yes – but what we’ve seen for the past few years isn’t politicians and representatives coming to a compromise. Both majority party “sides” browbeat each other until one side decides to suck it up and be quiet. Politicians spend more time and money on public relations than working for their constituents. The more we convince ourselves that the only way to succeed is to suck it up and be happy with lukewarm legislation, the more we sell all Americans short.
