How Did We Go So Wrong!

The founding fathers found a way to create our democratic governmental system despite the fact that they had very diverse opinions and positions about what it: should be, should protect, should be prevented from being and doing, and how it should operate. They each had regional views and interests to protect, and they had principles and values that they would not sacrifice. Yet even with these differences and pressures pulling them apart, they managed to come together and form a civil government that protects individuals’ freedoms and has fostered a society that has become the envy of the world. We may not be everyone’s vision of the ideal society, and many other countries may consider our way of life unacceptable; but in direct contradiction to such stated view these same country strives to attain the benefits and standard of living that we have in America. If such countries do not seek this status for their countrymen, at least they do want it for their leaders.

Americans take great pride in the success that our democratic system has produced. We even acknowledge and celebrate that when we have failed to live up to the ideals and aspirations of our free society that our system allows us to address and correct our failures. We eliminated slavery, guaranteed a right to vote, extended the vote to women, and made Senators elected by a popular vote. These amendments to the original Constitution (and Bill of Rights) are our efforts to evolve the American democracy toward a better and freer governmental system.

In our current political climate we certainly have individuals and parties that are in great opposition to each other. But I doubt that their excessive disagreement with and opposition to the other side’s positions and views are any stronger than those that have existed throughout our history. I suspect that the poor opinion that the public seems to have had about Congress over the years has in part been due to the fact that they act toward and react to each other with just violent hatred and anger that the public is inundated with a torrent of negative information and characterization.

So the difficulties that our current Congressional members are embroiled in on the Health Care Reform effort are no more challenging than those which their predecessors had to wrestle with in the past. The differences which may prevent these august representatives of the people from accomplishing their historic task are whether they are rational and reasonable individuals, and whether they are capable of compromising and collaborating with their counterparts of different political philosophies.

Are they rational and reasonable, or do they have even one of those traits? I suspect that most of them are rational, at least, more often than not. They are clearly capable of acting within our society with sufficiently sound judgment to get a large enough portion of the electorate to vote for and keep them in office. So on a general basis, we can expect that they are rational. But with regard to Health Care, their knowledge and judgment is likely to be insufficient and perhaps not good enough to enable them to make rational decisions that stand up over time on how to establish a medical health care system for the entire country. You may be the sanest auto mechanic anywhere, but I don’t want you to design or run my nuclear power plant. Are they reasonable? If we look at the partisanship voting and posturing than no, they are not reasonable; because they are rejecting the opportunity to solve a problem out of hand on the basis of a pre-conditioned position. Neither side is fulfilling the duties and obligations that they committed to in their oaths of office. This is not a situation where they are demonstrating any characteristic of being or acting in a reasonable fashion. I tend to think more of obstinate and mean spirited children; not intelligent and mature adults.

As to compromising and collaborating with one another in order to reach a reasonable accommodation so that they can deliver a prudent and sound Health Care policy for the nation; their decline into distortions and lies about each others’ positions are the antithesis of jointly working together to reach a accord that serves the common welfare of the union and its citizens. The failure in Health Care Reform, Congress lies not in the reasons you espouse but in your selfishness, your lack of foresight, your smallness of mind and meanness of spirit, and in your disregard for your fellow Americans.