Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Can we get fired up again to vote this year?

 With the mid-term elections approaching, will you go out to vote? It has been two years since we changed course and gave the Democrats power in both Congress Chambers and the Presidency. It appears that overall dissatisfaction with these three legislative bodies has peaked as we enter this election season. This was quite apparent throughout the country in the Primaries.

As a person with more Liberal views than Conservative, I tend to vote Democrat. However, I am never opposed to crossing party lines when I feel the Republican candidate is better. Over the past two years, I have discontent more so for the process and partisanship each party’s stances have taken than for each party’s ideals.

Democrats have been in power for two years, but because of progressive action with the stimulus plan and the medical bill, they became skittish. More worried about pointing fingers at the Republicans and the past Administration, Democrats pushed through fewer legislation goals than promised. At the same time, Republicans have taken an obstructionist stance. Every roadblock that they could muster, they threw at the Democrats.

Unfortunately, time is a luxury that incumbents do not have. The Great Depression and its affect in subsequent years, took a long time to recover. If anyone has taken and actually listened at an Economics class, a big economy is like a big train. It takes a long time and momentum to get it started and going fast. Once it is going good, it is easier to speed it up or apply the brakes. When it is going slow, it is harder to speed it up. When it is going fast and all of a sudden brakes fast, it can derail, just like our economy.

The economy needed a little coal to stoke the train’s fire. That was the stimulus bill. I still believe that if this bill was not pushed through, we could have seen unemployment at 15-20%. Sure, it spent a lot of money, but you need stimulus to get people to spend. Unfortunately, unemployment is still hovering between 9-10%.  The train is going slow and needs momentum until this change. This will be and I stress will be a long process. I think we will be lucky to see it down to 8% in 2 years. It does not matter who is in power then that will not change.

What we really need right now are the two parties to come together and meet a common ground. We need a leader from both parties to take these reigns and build bridges between both parties.   What happened to bipartisanship?  Compromise is really how politics is supposed to be done. None of that is occurring and it is a shame for America. The elections will not change this. I think Americans are aware of this and that may be reflected in this coming election. 

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