Hello. I've had a little bubbly. I offer that as a disclaimer should there be a certain incoherence to this post.
We worry about politics as we should. When we stop worrying is when things can really go bad. So we worry. We argue. We debate. But typically we do it with no other prevailing goal than to win. And not just win. But vanquish. Vanquish.
And at the dawn of a new decade I ask why that should be the goal of our political interaction when it is not the goal of any other human interaction in which we all participate? Is it the goal in any marriage to vanquish your spouse, to angle for 100% of what you want while working hard to see that your spouse gets 0% of what he or she wants? But that's how the two major parties approach their politics.
Why is it that in football a 30-20 score is still a victory, but in politics it's not unless the score is 50-0?
And if political parties demand of themselves 50-0, then very little will ever get done.
In poliics, as a politician, it comes down fundamentally to what are your needs? What is it you want? When the Declaration of Independence talked of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, was happiness conceived as the successful (though unlikely) vanquishing of your opponent?
If happiness comes from things, tangible things, like having health insurance, or bringing down the cost of same, then why must it arrive along a partisan divide, where Republicans get all or none of what they want, or the reverse?
If a score is 30-20, and you are the 20, you are still motivated to become the 30 next time. Or better. It doesn't have to be all or nothing to satisfy, to bring happiness. But that's how the Congress is operating, and how it legislates.
Until 30-20 is again an acceptable winning score, you will see legislative solutions which are inadequate for a great democracy, and you will see problems persist. Rather, a vanquishing approach, applied to a marriage or friendship or team at work, would certainly result in no wife, no friend, no compatible team dynamic. So, again, it comes down to what defines happiness, to what makes you happy. If it's winning, defined as getting nearly all you want while denying the other side all they want, then you probably don't see the Congress as broken at all. If it's based on something besides just winning, then our current system is in disrepair and should be fixed asap.
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