Democrats vs Republicans, vs Us

Republican-and-Democratic-mascotsSince the advent of the “two” party democratic system, the predominant parties have been at odds with each other. Political mudslinging has been a staple in the American political machine since the late 1700’s and hasn’t changed in over 200 years. A sad fact if you think about it.  It has been a common place practice to attack the character of your opponent in most political races. If you can’t beat them flat out on issues of policy and doing the job, start tearing them down on a personal level. And we as Americans have accepted this, even fed into it. The truly disappointing fact is that it works rather well.  Divide and concur has been a long standing rule in any power seeking to undermine and control the people it seeks to subdue (govern), why do we allow it to continue ?

In those 200 years we claim to have evolved and developed a better system compared to anything else out there. So why do we have two political parties that go after each other like school children on the playground?  Seriously, this is the best we can do? This is the better system? If we are above and beyond the rest then why do we still employ mudslinging, character assassination, base emotional manipulation, and divide and concur methods in our governmental/political practices?  I know many will say we have done an awesome job and we have the best country in the world. I would have to answer that retort with a question – do we really ? Can you look at our political system and confidently say that it gets the job done in an efficient, civic minded way ? Are we as a people truly being served by this process and how it works today ?

I don’t think I have seen an issue  handled or broached without some sort of manipulated partisan twist thrown in to garner allegiance to one party or the other in decades. The constant onslaught of “the dem’s are out to hurt women”, “repubs hate the poor, working class”. etc., is mind boggling. If you stand back far enough can you say with any certainty either party has our best interests at heart ? Is this the best example of government for the people, by the people ?

All the infighting and partisan line drawing has netted us what up to this point in time ? Dysfunction. Disarray. Discontent. And a growing apathy with the status quo of our government.

To be frank I could care less about many of the character flaws that are constantly dug up. I think more and more of the people want folks in office who are going to do the job they set out to do and were elected to do.  And that is exactly what it is, a job. We as tax payers are their employers. They were put in the position for two fundamental reasons – they wanted the job and we hired them.

At some point it has to become irrelevant what party they affiliate with and more about if they are the people who are going to do the job right, and actually get it done like they were hired to do. In any other job on the planet they would get fired out right for not doing the job they were hired for. Yes, we could vote them out at the next election but they’re in the job now and will be for a while and they aren’t cutting it. And while they’re not cutting it, they’re drumming up all this drama, all this puffery, all this distraction to keep our eyes on the party line, tied up in the conflict, and diverted away from the real issue – they aren’t doing the job.

We can’t totally blame them, we allow it to continue and we feed it. Billions of dollars of our money gets spent on this grandstanding and crap flinging. Every time I see a politician “stumping” that’s what I picture, a pissed off monkey shrieking and flinging poo at everyone. And we as other monkeys join the fray, jumping and flinging more poo. This is our evolved, better than everyone else system ? This is the result of the two party system, our two party system.

How can we as evolved monkeys, not interested in flinging poo spend our time and money more wisely? Do we allow the partisan back and forth to continue to stall government and waste billions of our hard earned dollars? This isn’t the Presidents fault. This isn’t the Democrats fault. This isn’t the Republicans fault. It is our fault for letting it continue and feeding into it. It is our fault for teaching them that this is the way to get through to us as a people. We all may not agree on everything, it is human nature (we are humans right?) to disagree. Why let them continue to fuel the fight where there isn’t any? Why continue to let them divide us and create conflict where there probably isn’t? Why allow them to stir us up on issues that aren’t theirs to get involved with to begin with?  Why continue to let them do a crap job and get away with it, and all the while lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate us, the people, so we ignore the truth and don’t hold them accountable?

This isn’t grade school. This isn’t a popularity contest. This is a job and they should be interviewed accordingly. I may not like you as a person but if you are qualified to do the job and can do it well, so be it. Why not approach government the same way?