Two years ago, Americans voted in Barack Obama as president, seeking change from the policies of George Bush; last week, Americans sought change of a different sort, turning the House of Representatives over to the Republican Party and reducing the Democrats’ majority in the Senate in a repudiation of Obama and his policies.
Among the GOP victors are a handful of Tea Party members who profess to want to change the system — which to them means reducing the deficit, cutting taxes and decreasing the size of government. Good luck to them.
But don’t count on change that will really address America’s pressing problems. We won’t see meaningful progress on reviving the economy, real health care reform, bringing spending in line, addressing global warming or immigration reform until our leaders learn to engage in civil, honest discourse with those who disagree with their positions. We won’t make progress until members of Congress, our president, our governors and our state legislators put the larger interests of their nation or state ahead of those of their party or their own next election. The solutions to our problems will continue to elude us as long as our leaders give heed only to the corporations, lobbyists and other moneyed special interests whose cash fuels their campaigns. America will continue to experience decline until the public and our public officials are willing to endure short-term sacrifice for the long-term good of the nation. This nation will not recover from its economic and political morass until public officials of all parties and philosophies learn to treat their opponents with respect and dignity and resolve to honestly tackle the issues with more than sound bites and talking points.
Regardless of which party holds power, the current political climate virtually guarantees failure. That climate keeps Democrats and Republicans in line not with what their constituents want or need, but with what the party wants as it eyes the next election. More than electing one party or removing another, America needs Republicans and Democrats beholden to their personal beliefs and principles instead of to the party platform and Democratic and Republican voters who will hold their candidates’ feet to the fire on crucial issue and principles instead of giving them a pass because of the D or R beside their names.
To say the system is broken is to put it mildly, but it didn’t happen just in the past two years or past eight, and it won’t be fixed — if there is a willingness to fix it — in this election cycle or the next. The means is there to correct the corruption of the system, but it will take leaders of both conviction and principle who are able to withstand the pressures and temptations that come with office, leaders who refuse to succumb to partisanship and theater, elected officials willing to put their nation ahead of their ambitions or those of their party. If such leaders people exist, it’s the best-kept secret in Washington, DC.
Until that happens, there will be no significant change for the good. There will be Republican political victories and Democratic political victories, but the economic health and vitality of this nation weakens still more, as our deficit reaches the tipping point and our national resolve erodes to nothing. There is no doubt that we have the capacity to change today’s poisonous political environment. The question is, do we have the will?
