Politics Suck

My office at the car dealership where I spend my days (can't really call it work so much) sits right next to a customer lounge where the Bob Evans crowd gathers to wait on their repairs to be made and watch Fox New Channel. So, because of my proximity to the television (and their refusal to turn up their hearing aids), I'm subjected to endless circular arguments over whatever topics the talking heads deem appropriate that day.

God how I miss the Casey Anthony trial. At least that was interesting.

I'll be quite honest, I have no idea on what issue the President is supposed to be speaking this morning. I can't say as I actually give a damn, either. It's not that I don't support President Obama, I do actually, especially when compared to the ridiculousness of the Bush era, but what I have figured out about Washington and what takes place there is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any interest in doing what's right for the country. The only agenda that either side seems to have is being right and preventing the other side from doing what they want to do.

This cannot be healthy for the country.

We have a system that at its base is the best in the world, or so they would have you believe. But the problem is that because the two major sides cannot agree on what to order for breakfast, let alone how to attack the deficit or create job, or anything else even mildly important, nothing can get done.

The system is designed to prevent a dictatorship. It's supposed to ensure that one crazy lunatic won't take power and thrust our country into disaster. That's the checks and balances system at its core. But it's not the American people that these congressmen and women are representing anymore; they represent only themselves and their party. Their interest is not in getting the best guidelines and regulations for the nation, but only to yell the loudest, get noticed, and get re-elected.

The Obama administration was set-up to fail, but it's not unique to this presidency. The next president will face the same issues and so will the next and the next. With a system in place that has grown out of control, where the decision makers have chosen to spend their time preventing others from putting to work their plans without offering substantial alternatives, the country is stuck in neutral. And because each side is wasting time and energy trying to prevent the other side from being right, we as a country, are left in the middle, stuck with no action at all from the people we voted for; people that were put into office to take action.

I have very little patience for people who do nothing, who refuse to make decisions and who refuse to risk being wrong. Those people are the ones occupying our most influential posts in Washington these days. Worse than that, really, there are a healthy number of elected officials who make it their work to actually prevent any action from taking place.

The country is in a better place than it was a few years ago, at least from where I sit, but with such little progress coming from our elected leaders, we cannot move quickly enough toward complete recovery. In all honesty, I would be much happier if the powers that be would simply take an action, any action, and be willing to live with the consequences. Do it right or do it wrong, but do something. At least with a singular decision maker, the country would have a direction, right or wrong.

There is nothing worse than idly playing your fiddle while your empire is burning.