I have grown weary of whiny journalists and pundits who have such a limited understanding of history and narrow appreciation of things in this country that have worked and worked very well.
Point One: wholesale political changeover equals waste in terms of training new politicos to do a job that takes (by my own estimation) at least a year to acclimate into (and that’s if all you plan to do is be an ideological rubber stamp for the national party). Cynical about my cynicism? If you think that being an elected leader is so easy – then get going and be one. I spent one year as the elected president of our school PTL; a school with only 150 kids. It was almost a full-time job holding meetings, balancing budgets, soothing feelings, negotiating policy and working out compromises. Doing a job like that at the Congressional level should be a million times more difficult. If it isn’t, something is wrong.
Next point, I’ve grown weary of the cynicism of “the other side.” This country has a 200+ year heritage of working out differences; people who are willing to compromise their ideologies for the sake of good statesmanship. The fact that this country has stood for 200+ years with representative governance should be seen as something of a modern-day miracle. So when “the other side” claims that “the other side” is turning the country to ruin, something is wrong. Strong partisanship never produces good governance.
Final point, there isn’t a road made in this country that wasn’t paid by taxes. There isn’t a single inch of our distributed networks (telephone, electricity, water) that doesn’t owe its existence to taxes. All of our public infrastructure – first responders, schools, military services, et al – are paid for with taxes. Our society is wholly and completely supported by the will of the people to pay taxes.
Until somebody comes up with a better way to valuate effort and commoditize resources without money, then we’re stuck with taxes. True, some federal institutions are enormously inefficient, but that’s where the will of the people comes in. Elect professionals who can look beyond partisanship and ideologies – and we will solve problems.
No cynicism needed. -HP
