Let’s figure out how to work together

I am equally unhappy with the national legislative state of affairs.

I am equally unhappy with the national legislative state of affairs.

I’ve leaned toward split government, house of one party, senate of another (or vice versa) because I thought that might force them to work together since neither party alone could move anything.

That didn’t (hasn’t) worked.

I’m not a big fan of one-party government because that lends itself to overreach. A republican majority and a democratic president doesn’t (isn’t) working. Likely neither would the opposite.

A republican majority and a republican president did not take the country to a better place – although, much was passed and signed into law. I’ve got to think a democratic majority and a democratic president would likely add up to the same.

Gerrymandering has resulted in safe districts in which candidates like tenured professors are immune (or at least highly resistant) to the consequences of bad decisions.

Term limits only changes the interim in which candidates from safe districts are replaced.

I’ve come to realize it’s not, never has been about the party. It’s about sound governance in which there are consequences for bad actions and checks and balances both in the electoral process and in governance.

And, I’m inclined to think that what might absolutely fix that would be more competitive districts in which getting elected is not a sure thing, but depends on getting the votes of a broad cross section of constituents – left, right, middle.

Sure it’ll make the process more difficult. It will also require, I hope, a greater degree of accommodation of diverse viewpoints. Something right now, sorely lacking.

Come next election, I’m likely to vote strictly democratic. I haven’t in the past.

But I’m not persuaded that President Obama is evil incarnate. And I think he deserves a chance, just as much as a republican president, to attempt to enact the policies he, his (or her) party supports. Grinding the system to a halt because one doesn’t like the electoral outcome is self-centered and selfish – left or right.

In the future, I’d much rather see competitive districts than safe districts. Run the real risk of losing an election rather than pleasing the choir. It’s just not proving to be good for the country.

Less strident, less adversarial, less rock throwing for the sake of throwing rocks and not much else.

By the year 2043 or sooner we will be a far more diverse nation than we currently are. It is in our best interests to figure out how to work together to sort out our difference. Getting bent out of shape because things are changing, they’re not as they “used to be” is just short-sighted and unproductive.

How things “used to be” isn’t the direction we’re moving in, whether or not we like it.

Let’s do ourselves, our nation, and the world (by example) a favor, and figure out how to make it work.

– Mike Moore


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