In spite of what you may have heard - the smash hit TV Show "The Walking Dead"
was not based on the National Hockey League or the 112th Congress - it was actually
inspired by...the American Electorate.
Because no matter what our elected officials do or more appropriately - don't do!
...we - the American People are harder to find than the last shrimp on a Chris Christie
seafood plate.
But that is because our politicians treat our Political System like our approach
to Health Care: First - Do No Harm! Second - Take away the pain
Third - Accept no blame.
And they have done an excellent job of numbing us to a day to day news cycle that
lauds a Grand Bargain instead of a Grand Vision.
Every agreement...every bill that is passed...every policy decision made...is under
the premise that as long as it doesn't affect them in the moment...they won't really
notice what we are doing.
We fight two wars in ten years with no draft and no request upon us to pay for it!
More Americans can name who got Kim Kardashian pregnant than the countries we
are currently fighting in!
The HealthCare battle wasn't a fundamental argument on whether it's a "right or
a privilege"...but who is going to pay for it...the government or our employer?!
...and how much is my co-pay going to be?
More kids have tried "Pot" by the time they reach high school than have read "Catcher
In the Rye". Legalization is only an argument for the people who haven't tried it yet!
There are 11 million illegal immigrants here...to the average American it makes no
difference what there legal status is..."just don't make me pay more money to hire them!"
And of course the fight over taxes is so big that it gets its own Branding..."The Fiscal Cliff"
After all is said and done 99% of all Americans won't see any difference or change in
their overall tax rates!
But come March 1st...with the battle on taxes won and done...The Republicans are ready to attack Government Programs with all the gusto of a band of Somali Pirates on the high seas...with Social Security and Medicare being the prize booty to steal!
With one out of every six Americans receiving some form of government assistance and every American viewing these two programs as a bedrock of the American social contract - any perceived unreasonable takeaway has the potential to bring back to life "The Walking Dead" and have them run to the voting booths for the mid-term elections.
If the House Republicans are willing to drive our economy back into the ditch by insisting to change these programs "as we know it"...than they might be driving more moderate Republicans and Independents back to the Democratic Party, than were lost when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Right Bill in 1964.
But it is my fervent hope that a political victory takes a back seat in that car - to a real victory!
And that President Obama who originally ran on "change we can believe in" - cannot only negotiate the changes that are necessary to insure and stabilize Social Security and Medicare but - change us for the better - by showing us that "Politics is something to believe in."