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Focusing ahead on this coming New Year in many ways is very exciting. We have a new diverse set of viewpoints to shape our legislation. We have promises made by both sides, and as some were kept via last minute legislation this year there is hope momentum will be followed through to 2011. There is a hope through diversity we will see a new vision and even direction arise.
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At the end of this year after two years of doing nothing Republicans and the President finally were able to come to compromises. Though there was not much total cooperation, there were some Republicans able to say, ‘whatever we made him out to be, he is not. He is a man, and that we can work with.’ Thus realizing they seemed to be able to move forward with shaking a man’s hand they had seemed to decide was not worthy of their touch.
They finally put the bickering down and said, ‘let’s start from here and see if we can end up at a meeting place.’ A few brave souls said, ‘let’s walk over and see that those differences we thought existed in fact do not.’ They said, ‘let’s step closer and find a way out of the messes together, for after all, they are shared messes.’
There were so many ways similar deals to those achieved at the end of 2010 could have been reached before – so why’d they wait? Why hold America hostage? The new folks just voted in have not been sworn in yet. We’re dealing with the same people. Why did they hold off until the last month of 2010 to start acting like they cared about more than their careers and their parties?
That goes for both parties. There was far too much bickering and finger pointing and there was no one there to put a check on them, for if Democrats and Republicans refuse to work with each other who else have we voted in to keep things running? We had no one at all. Our Congress is as diverse as the two current brands of politicians allow. Perhaps we can begin in the New Year to consider ways to change that.
Perhaps in the New Year we will think about the fact the two party monopoly has not served us as well as Americans deserve, and it’s time to vote in some additional voices. This means both chambers of Congress need to be peopled with more than Democrats and Republicans. This way, when they are stubbornly at loggerheads and nothing is happening, instead of our money being flushed down the drain because the fools refuse to work, there will be people there ready to do what others would not.
This doesn’t mean get rid of the current system, it means simply adding to it. Some say we need a president from another party. That would be nice, but if we had that, yet still only the two in congress, we would always be at a three way block with Democrats saying this, Republicans saying that and the party in the White House saying another. In the end Democrats and Republicans would band together to make sure the message and impression given was that Americans were better with two parties. They may even create their own false parties like they did in 2010 to make it seem there is something else then slowly suck the new parties back in to the fold.
With true variety in Congress and a healthy enough balance to really keep checks on Congress and all they oversee we would not have such worries as often (legislatively). In fact, the current two parties would be forced to do more, as to not do so would mean to only embarrass themselves. They would look inept and incompetent when placed next to the others like children sitting in the corners with dunce caps on while all the others were working were they to attempt to hold up things with tantrums.
In the meantime let’s hope there will not be a repeat of the last two years this time and that President Obama will find a group of Republicans unafraid to touch his hand as he extends it towards them for a shake. There really should be no reason to recoil. It’s a New Year and the people spoke saying, ‘we don’t want either of the two solely in power. We need a balance we’ll send in Republicans to the House, but keep Democrats in the Senate.’
Let’s hope for good things and promises kept this time around. That would be the best gift Americans could receive, besides jobs and a healthy economy. Let’s hope the promise of working together, and not wasting money people are paying them to do nothing while losing their houses, is kept. That would make it one excellent year. Cooperation would be the best present yet. Let’s hope for and be excited for the prospect of that in this coming year of 2011.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.