Cross-posted at The American Way.
Why is it so difficult to have political conversations? I feel stuck in a box here. I am trying to be non-partisan, trying to create dialogue, trying to create a sense of urgency around the state of our political process, but I feel pegged in. I was told just today that "When you get the right and left talking, the Right caves into the Left and calls it 'compromise'." In this, I feel pegged as a "leftie" just for wanting to start dialogue. This is very frustrating.
Look at our political system. Less than two weeks ago, our federal government nearly shutdown. This over a budget bill that should have passed last year (we are six months into this fiscal year). I am not interested in the specifics of who came out looking better on this deal. I am frustrated that our political process is so broken.
According to a Washington Post Poll, approximately two-thirds of Americans felt that a shutdown of the federal government would have been a bad thing. And yet, our government continues to froth and foam in the news about partisan issues ... and get nothing done. There is a serious problem here.
Much of what has been written about the aftermath of the shutdown focuses on who came out looking better. Really?!? Who looks better?!? I say they all look bad. I don't want to hear lefties whining about rightwing obstructionism. If the left were doing more for the middle class and less for Wall Street, then the right-wing would have no leg to stand on with the vast majority of voters. I don't want to hear the rightwing whine about left-wing overreach particularly with the overreach of the GOP during the first the Bush regime. Both parties are asleep at the wheel and failing to address the most serious issues facing Americans: job creation, ongoing wars, serious poverty, etc.