very insightful - I agree my only issue is why does there need to be dem's - rep's instead of just one gov't with the interest of the people at hand, me for one am tired of hearing dem this , rep that - IMho it should just be a judicial body instead of elected official constantly fighting with each other.... and we the people suffer
This is a good question, deserving of my best stab at an answer. First, we DO have one government. That it doesn't work very well is a consequence directly attributable to the electorate who puts divisive people in office and then rewards them for being obstructionist instead of accomodating. Whoops, I just said that you and I are the problem, didn't I? That's another part of this; everyone wants to point fingers, play the blame game (along with the measuring your pee pee game) and/or play the victim, instead of getting down to brass tacks and figuring out how to solve our nation's problems in ways that make the most sense for the most people.
We have two parties because of long standing institutional habit, and many built-in perks the two sides have voted for themselves over the years. We need more than one political party as a check on runaway abuse of power, and because the right way forward isn't clear and we need more than one perspective. In fact, I think the fact that we have only two (meaningfully sized) parties IS a lot of the problem. It's easy, after all, to sit on the sidelines and toss bombs until they let you back in the game. The concept of parliament may be reviled by many, but it is clear they do a better job of representing the breadth of the people's political interests than our two party oligopoly does.
Judges don't have any corner on wisdom, not individually and certainly not collectively. Want proof? Have a look at some of the silly excuses for 'law' our Supreme Court has ruled on in just the last few years! The Founding Fathers knew very well that no one individual had all the answers, and no one individual should have all the power. If they did, they would have been called 'monarchists' and would have happily remained under the rule of King George III. Many did feel this way, and were called 'loyalists' during the Revolutionary Era.
If you're as tired of politicians making hay instead of law, then I invite you and all those reading this to write your representatives- ALL of them!- and politely remind them that you didn't vote for them to go behave like children and make a career of political rancor. Tell them you voted for them to get shit done, in your best interest. Tell them if they fail, you'll be happy to vote for someone who will. If enough people did this, political games would dramatically diminish and maybe, just maybe, they'd get something done. If we the people kept the heat on, that something might even be helpful...
So, to end this essay where it began, we the people are responsible for our government and to the extent it doesn't work and politicians make the calculation that no progress is preferable to compromise, then it is we the people who bear the blame, and the responsibility for change.
