Let's Start Strong

It's my first post on my new blog. And where better to start than the state of our nation. Not all of my posts will be political. They will be the experiences of a young, and not-all-knowing, but opinionated young man as he runs through his artsy life in New York City. But what is more pressing now than our monetary situation? As we creep toward further financial decay, what do our leaders do? Delay voting on bills that need to be heard and continue arguing just in an attempt to deface the other side. It's childish game play and, as Fareed Zakaria recently pointed out in a very Zakaria-esque Op-Ed in The Washington Post, our Political Parties have rapidly deteriorated into warring factions instead of a cohesive body of different opinions. 

When did we make Congress a playground for spoiled kids? Seriously. This stuff is getting to be ridiculous, to the point where people won’t care if the GOP or the Democrats win a particular battle because they’ll just by shocked that something got done. This government needs to learn that as long as parties and reelection take precedent over the fiscal and moral issues of the nation at large, we will never flourish as our public demands us to. When did we let the casts of Mean Girls (With Michelle Bachmann parading around as Regina George) into our hallowed halls of reason? When did we let the grumpier old men (Reid and Boehner) run bi-partisanship into the ground? We need grown-ups who aren’t afraid of not being reelected, who aren’t afraid of actually solving issues who don’t give a SHIT about the party banner they ran under. When our nation is collapsing under the weight of our debt, when we default on our loans, the Parties aren’t the ones paying for that. We are.

And I realize that all of you will point at this piece and shout to your friends at work ‘NAIVETE’ or ‘EVIL LIBERAL SOCIALIST’ but what other solution is there? I’m most certainly not a socialist  but it doesn’t take a degree to know that the Bush tax cuts and these two unfunded and God’s and Generals –esque (that movie never ended, swear to God it’s still playing) wars are the largest contributors to our debt. I realize that the wars are a process, so that’s another story, but why not nix these cuts that have obviously outgrown their use (did they really have a positive one, besides making Dick and George’s friends happy). Political Parties in this country have become gangs. They have become completely entrenched and obtuse. Who will be the one to step out and make something happen? Who will be the one to do what this country needs and push legislation for a raise in the debt ceiling AND for a spending cut, because really, before August 2^nd you aren’t going to get one without the other. John McCain took a step the other day when he seared both sides’ behinds. Is that old fence-straddler the only one? Where you at, people we elected to unify our nation? Did we make a mistake? Or is it that we were set up to fail? Who knows if bi-partisanship is even possible, but we all know how to compromise, it's just a question of doing it. Abandon liberalism, abandon the Tea Party. Remember that there are things bigger than your constituency in Suburbia and your party leaders. There is us. The voters. America. Fix us. We need it.