The Winter Of Political Discontent

I've often written about how restless the people are.  The more  government intrudes in our lives the worse those lives become.  This isn't anything new.  It has been an escalating menace for years.

People have been clamoring for third party solutions.  Countless efforts are being made.  Consider the Americans Elect movement, The Modern Whigs, No Labels among others.  All have been founded to try and solve the problem of Washington and the way it governs.  Unfortunately, as with any new idea, it takes time.  First to make people aware such efforts are being made, secondly to convince them it's worth getting involved and then to finally take hold with enough strength to see changes made.

Every once in awhile the press gives them some notice.  I've learned about all of them from reading papers like the Wall Street Journal but today our local paper,The Coeur d'Alene Press,  had an editorial suggesting people check out No Labels   which is more of an on line think tank than a third party effort.  Never-the-less, it is made up with those like myself who are hopelessly fed up with Congress and how it does business.

The editorial takes from the organization that it's not so much the people who make up Congress that's the problem, but rather the antiquated procedures that make forward movement difficult at best.  That it's the broken system where 'good and talented people get dragged down'.

I don't agree.  It is the people whether they are good and talented or not.  There are certainly some of each.  But there is nothing to keep them from fixing what's broken other than the will to do it.  They don't have it.  There is too much self interest.  It has been discussed ad nauseam, how Congress is more interested in ideology and re-election than what's good for the country. That's the people in Congress, not the system itself.  There is no barrier keeping them from reaching across the aisle to reach solutions.  No side is ever entirely right while the other is entirely wrong but you'd never know it from listening to any of them.

I don't disagree that the systems mechanics could use some modernization.  It's like using a dial phone in the age of smart phones.  But it's still people using them.

Until the people who run for office are more interested in returning the country to the greatness it once enjoyed, and until the electorate insists in that trait in their candidates, nothing will change.  We will still be mired down in the quest for selfish ends.  Ends that leave the rest of us out.  Like insider trading by members of Congress while we would go to jail.

Like a candidate who would defy Supreme Court rulings with which he  disagrees.  He's running for President, not dictator.  Or is he?

Nope, it's not just the system that needs fixed.  It's the attitude of the people.