You know what is really pissing me off about this shut down? It’s not the fact that the government is shut down…okay I am pissed off about it but why waste a good blog opener right? I am pissed off because I keep hearing something that no elected official should ever say…that being that they or the party would look weak/foolish if they gave in to the side on this border wall debate.
I am not trying to sound naive here folks and pretend that politics is all about power, leverage, and optics. But have we grown so cynical about our elected officials that we don’t sit back and go wait and damn minute here…we elected you guys to make decisions that are best for this country and here you are saying to the whole fucking world that you can’t make the right decision for the country because it would make your party and yourself look weak?
I mean is anybody else sitting here reading this and going WTF? We can sit here all day long and saying that we are putting “America First” but in what world is putting America first when you would put your own interests and your own parties optics first and make a decision or lack of a decision that puts regular american citizens last?
Can you imagine how our marriages would look if every time we got into an argument with our spouses we never compromised or put aside our pride? Oh wait…I have seen that dynamic in my office right before a couple divorced because when one spouse was unwilling to let go of something because it made them look bad that was the second the marriage was over. We compromise in a healthy marriage and let go of our pride because our goal is to stay married and have a healthy marriage because that is the only option you have.
Its difficult in a marriage when you choose the person that you are with but in congress, it’s an arranged marriage so what makes us think when we don’t even pick the person we are with we don’t have to compromise? That is because the political parties goal isn’t to compromise and work together…its to totally dominant and win all the seats so they can’t compromise. Sounds like we are all the collateral damage of their war doesn’t it?
Maybe we should begin to use a new litmus test with the candidates from both parties? That litmus test should be are they willing to look foolish or make their party look weak if they know it is best for the country? It may not sound like a big deal but if they are willing to do that, maybe they are willing to put aside their civil war for the best of the country and start making decisions again. Because if they aren’t…they have no place seeking elected office
