Ironically, the strategies of Democrat and Republican elected officials are very similar, just similarly wrong. Their strategies are to raise obscene amounts of money, win elections … not as a means to the end of governing well but as an end in itself … in order to raise even more money and entrench themselves in even more power. As we are all aware, in too many cases they are still doing this long after they have principally become sclerotic tools of lobbyists and donors. Many have become too cowardly to do what they believe in their hearts would be good for America, but bad for their political careers. Others don’t even know or care what they think is right, having gotten elected and thriving in Washington by not paying attention to such old-fashioned, quaint values.
Voters need to stop this. We need to elect pragmatic, consensus-oriented public servants. We need to recognize that about half of us see issues very differently than the other half of us. We need to pay attention to the fact that history has demonstrated over the last few decades that neither side is going to prevail over the other.
More voters need to take an “Um, I could live with that” approach to politics, and insist their elected officials do the same. We need to insist that, regardless of their political views, our politicians be sensible, and endeavor to work with others to get things done. The alternative is likely more of the circus that most of us despise, and a continuing grinding down of our nation.
