Our politicians will not save us from our problems. We shouldn’t expect them to either. There’s little incentive for them to do so. They are engaged in a zero-sum game. In game theory, this is described as a situation where one of the participant’s gains is equal to the opponent’s loss. For someone to win, the other has to lose (similar to sports).
So if you want to be victorious, you can either put the effort in to win or work to ensure your challenger loses. It seems that politicians often take the second route rather than the first. The result is the same (get the job or keep the job), but the costs are less, or at least seem that way in the short term.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
This win-lose mentality won’t solve the problems that the system has caused in the first place. Instead, we will have to do it ourselves. It will take – the blue collar, white collar, and civil servants; our artists and scientists; teachers and students; those retired and their grandchildren; corporations, non-profits, and government agencies – everyone who has a vested interest in our nation’s success, but doesn’t run for election. It will take people who believe that we can build win-win solutions, and then have the fortitude to make them a reality.
Failure is always an option, and without changing the way our government does business, it is inevitable. There’s too much at stake. No time for blame, time for action.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I’ve lost the ability to find it funny that this is exactly how our government operates.
From this moment forward, I re-elect no one. Period. Until Congress, as a whole, is doing work that benefits America, as opposed to their job security. It’s a failure of the American people to think “Congress is broken, sure, by my guy/girl? S/He’s not the problem. It’s everyone else.” That’s failure. And that’s the option we’re living under right now…
It’s time for Change. Not the kind Barry O promised…but the real, American voices calling out for a better future kind.
Democrats.
Republicans.
Libertarians.
Communists.
Socialists.
Reform Party members.
Tea Party-ers.
“Everyone with a vested interest in our nation’s success.”
And we have got to STOP pitting sides against each other and making every single issue about party lines and morality and whose right and whose wrong (which is really who is wrong and who is less wrong).
But…I digress….
I feel your frustration Athena. Last year I was toying with the idea of starting a political change called the Anti-Incumbent party. The only criteria would be voting for someone other the person in office. Now I’m not sure if that would help. It would be sending new people into a broken system and I don’t think that would get much better results. Many one of the readers would like to take that on if you’re interested.