There is Enough Stupid in Washington Already

Abstract
The atmosphere in Washington is one of winning and causing the other guy to lose. If we stay on this course our country will suffer. In order to get back to what we once were it is going to take an effort on everyone’s part to stop blaming the other guy. “Whether it's done through a third party or reforming the two we already have, we need candidates and leaders who prize the virtues of bipartisanship and solving problems over blame-game politics.” (Harman, 2011)


There is Enough Stupid in Washington Already

One can only imagine what those men who meet in that hall in Philadelphia were thinking as they signed their names to a document that would found a whole new nation. Fear and optimism must have been high, one misstep and it would all be for naught. Yet these men of different backgrounds and trades came together to forge not one document, The Declaration of Independence, but two, The Constitution. Their goal was to make this a nation unlike any other with freedoms we could cherish. However today’s Congress is much different. It isn’t about working together but destroying the other party. In order for this country to pull out of its nosedive both parties must begin working together in a true bipartisan effort.

“ Today, representatives would rather blame the other guy for not solving a problem than work with him or her on a bipartisan solution.” (Harman, 2011) It is a sad state of affaires we find out selves in when those we send to Washington to represent us are more interested in blaming the other person then getting things done. Instead of working together to fix a problem they compound it to the point that no one is happy with the final outcome. One needs only to look at the most recent debt crisis to see this in action. Instead of working out a solution that would benefit the nation, they instead fought and bickered to the point that the rest of the world has downgraded our economy and doesn’t trust us to be the nation we once were regarding our debts.

Who wins in this type of situation? No one. When election season comes around each side will in turn blame the other for what they see as a failure to compromise. Yet how can there be compromise if both sides refuse too. “Working together requires sharing the credit-but that might give the other party an opportunity to win.” (Harman, 2011) There was a time when this wasn’t the thinking in America. Sadly though the mentality of your either with us or against us has become a pandemic. Both JFK and Regan knew the power of working together to forge something great, to carry on the tradition set by our Founding Fathers as an example.

It is hard to blame one party for the current atmosphere in Washington. It would be much easier if there were a clear-cut bad guy in this situation. Yet how can there be when everyone is corrupt? We are all Americans wanting a better world to live in. We want a home for our families, food to feed them, an education for our children, and the safety of knowing that tomorrow is coming. So then why is it so hard for those that we elect, who promise to work for these things, to do it?

The answer is simple the system needs to change. We cannot keep heading in the direction we are going if we want this country to be still standing in a hundred years. The true enemy of freedom isn’t some foreign land but the greed in our own system. Only when we start working together for the good of our citizens can we truly begin to be a united nation. Is there more then one way to do something? Of course there is. But does that mean one way is right and the other wrong? No, it just means we will have to work harder to find a solution that works for everyone. Bipartisan is what we need to work towards. We need to stop electing people who only want to work for themselves and start electing people that will work for us.
References

Bibliography
Harman, J. (2011, August 15). Escape From the Asylum; Watching the debt crisis, a former congresswoman yearns for a lost bipartisan era. Newsweek , 158 (7).