FromTheSouth
You don't want it with me.
gets worse and worse every day.
Up until the 1990's, Congress was a place of great debate. It was a place where leaders were made, made men ascended, and the ascended became the heroes of this nation. Once the 90's came, partisan politics became the lay of the land. It has truly been a shame. Whereas someone like Ted Kennedy was able to work across the aisle with Trent Lott for decades, even though they were staunchly situated on their side, now the idea of cooperation is out the window. There used to be common ground, and now, instead of being known as a maverick, a man or woman with a view that opposes the party line is made out to be a traitor.
Look at the skewering of Joe Liberman. The man has been a faithful Democratic Senator for longer than many of us have been alive, and yet, his moderate views led him to support John McCain, and the leftist machine destroyed him in a primary. When he ran as an independent, he found enough support form both sides of the political spectrum in his state to win. He is a true moderate, almost libertarian, Senator, and his populist views are demonized by the right and ostracized by the left. It's as if no one cares about the people's opinion.
Furthermore, the partisan bickering has led to more process stories than issue stories. The gladiatorial combat in chambers has become more interesting, and more prevalent, than the sharing of ideals. It's always been said that the two things you never wanted to see made were laws and sausages. Thank God sausage has kept that in mind, because watching laws made has become painful, and both sides are to blame. The left is trying so hard to ram legislation down our throats without disclosing particulars that the people demand transparency. The right is fighting so hard beat the left that the people demand restraint. Instead of doing what the people want, which is to release the terms of the bill and then to allow both sides to intelligently debate the merits of the bill, we find both sides finding minute details of the case to call each other fascists, racists, Nazi's, and a plethora of other names that has completely distracted from the case at hand. This healthcare bill has gone from a good idea that needed tweaking to becoming such a contentious point that a third party is rising from the dust to appeal to the people. America is, and always will be a center right country. This doesn't mean that Republicans have an advantage, it just means that tradition dictates that the people should be the agents of social change, and not the government. The government in America is elected by the people, and should be taking the wishes of the people and putting them into bill form. The people should be dictating the course of events in the nation. Instead we get a congress telling us what we want and, even worse, the judicial branch making laws from the bench by pointing to unclear, esoteric passages of the Constitution taken completely out of context.
Whereas the US Congress was the place where compromise brought about the social change the people demanded, it is now the place where good ideas go to die; collateral damage in the war between parties fighting for power instead of fighting for the people.
Up until the 1990's, Congress was a place of great debate. It was a place where leaders were made, made men ascended, and the ascended became the heroes of this nation. Once the 90's came, partisan politics became the lay of the land. It has truly been a shame. Whereas someone like Ted Kennedy was able to work across the aisle with Trent Lott for decades, even though they were staunchly situated on their side, now the idea of cooperation is out the window. There used to be common ground, and now, instead of being known as a maverick, a man or woman with a view that opposes the party line is made out to be a traitor.
Look at the skewering of Joe Liberman. The man has been a faithful Democratic Senator for longer than many of us have been alive, and yet, his moderate views led him to support John McCain, and the leftist machine destroyed him in a primary. When he ran as an independent, he found enough support form both sides of the political spectrum in his state to win. He is a true moderate, almost libertarian, Senator, and his populist views are demonized by the right and ostracized by the left. It's as if no one cares about the people's opinion.
Furthermore, the partisan bickering has led to more process stories than issue stories. The gladiatorial combat in chambers has become more interesting, and more prevalent, than the sharing of ideals. It's always been said that the two things you never wanted to see made were laws and sausages. Thank God sausage has kept that in mind, because watching laws made has become painful, and both sides are to blame. The left is trying so hard to ram legislation down our throats without disclosing particulars that the people demand transparency. The right is fighting so hard beat the left that the people demand restraint. Instead of doing what the people want, which is to release the terms of the bill and then to allow both sides to intelligently debate the merits of the bill, we find both sides finding minute details of the case to call each other fascists, racists, Nazi's, and a plethora of other names that has completely distracted from the case at hand. This healthcare bill has gone from a good idea that needed tweaking to becoming such a contentious point that a third party is rising from the dust to appeal to the people. America is, and always will be a center right country. This doesn't mean that Republicans have an advantage, it just means that tradition dictates that the people should be the agents of social change, and not the government. The government in America is elected by the people, and should be taking the wishes of the people and putting them into bill form. The people should be dictating the course of events in the nation. Instead we get a congress telling us what we want and, even worse, the judicial branch making laws from the bench by pointing to unclear, esoteric passages of the Constitution taken completely out of context.
Whereas the US Congress was the place where compromise brought about the social change the people demanded, it is now the place where good ideas go to die; collateral damage in the war between parties fighting for power instead of fighting for the people.
