This 2024 election has all the earmarks of being the worst yet. I don’t mean the results, whatever they may be. I mean the shouting, the hatred, the insults, the divisiveness. We seem ready to set new records.
War can do that of course. It creates fierce passion. That’s not bad. Surely we can withstand (even welcome) a tough, no-holds-barred-debate. But on top of all the rest of the polarizing our politics has seen from both parties in recent years – and from 24/7 confrontation cable too – shouldn’t we think about taking a deep breath? Without it, the 2024 campaigns may produce their own war zone right here at home.
It hasn’t always been this way you know.
There was a time when the Congressional leaders of both parties shared the same car to ride to a White House meeting with the President.
There was a time when most new Members of the House brought their families with them to Washington – and the spouses became friends across party lines and forced some inter-party socializing.
There was a time when the Senate leader of one party would never even think about going to campaign against the Senate leader of the other party.
There was a time when everyone in Congress got there by competing in their election for the voters in the middle and therefore held a number of similar views on tough issues.
There was a time when public service seemed infinitely more important than party loyalty.
To some it may seem idealistic, utopian and sappy, but “can’t we all just get along” as Rodney King asked not so many years ago in Los Angeles after the police beating he received touched off night after night of riots.
Differing over whether we should have ever gone to Iraq doesn’t do much to figure out what to do now. Hating the other side does little of anything to solve any of our other crucial issues: dependence on foreign oil, failing schools, soaring national debt, unaffordable health care, lobbying corruption in Washington, global climate change, and more.
You know the list. They will still be there on November 8th, no matter who wins on November 7th. The question is whether the blame-game campaign of 2024, regardless of the results, will leave us closer to finding answers or further from even being able to talk about them.
Can’t we all take a breath?
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Retired but Active
I suppose it is possible for one person or one small group of people to have an impact on the behavior, morals, social intelligence, and other attributes of a truly representative group of other people but, in the case of our Congressmen and Women, I doubt it very seriously. It has reached the point where I, for one, have very little to NO faith in just about anything that comes out of congress. The laws are certainly not in the best interests of the greater society and the unbridled expenditures by BOTH parties seem to indicate a rapid downward spiral in morality in our elected leaders.
I have had numerous conversations with friends and colleagues as well as business associates about this problem and we are all in pretty close agreement that the ONLY way we are going to start forcing any changes is to start at the very bottom of the food chain in politics. That is, we have to change the LOCAL political behaviors before we can tackle the County, State, Region, or Nation. Until we can get our local representatives to grow some gonads and have the guts to speak up to the county an state leaders we will never make any progress. And, we CAN have an effect on our local politicians. Each ward or whatever it is called in each area has the power to organize first a family group, the a street group, then a block group, then a ward group, then a city wide group and so on. But, until we, all of us, start taking the time to make our voices heard, NOTHING of note will happen.
This appears to be a topic that will generate a lot of interst. If it does not, we are all barking up the wrong tree. Thanks, publius, for starting it.
I truly feel that our leaders have good hearts, those that lead us today, but they are confused and torn apart by the extremes of both parties... It's time we act as Americans first and as members of parties another day - UNITE AMERICA!... - Earn Snyder
Author "$aving the bureaucracy - Killing the beast"
Modern Progressive Independent
www.appyp.com/fix_main.html
Please elaborate. Do you mean that our efforts to talk rationally rather than emotionally should be tireless? Or, do you think the blame-game rhetoric that leaves politicians red-faced and breathless is actually the best way to debate the issues?